Believed In, Feared In
by Janazza
Summary: After an incident during the Easter Disaster, something inside Jack snaps, and he finds himself on the other side of the battle. With the guardians coming close to fading away, will there be a happy ending for anyone? T for language. No Pairings. (Also am a beta reader in need of RotG fics to edit)
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to my fic. If you are from Our Favorite Guardians or Sickness, then welcome. It's good to see you. If you aren't, then I ask that you check those out, too. **

**This story is based off what was originally a one-shot that grew and others were hoping to see what would happen. So, I give you a full fic. There are NO pairings, too much work.**

**Please enjoy and review.**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

Jack had only known about the cold. Cold. He'd been cold for three hundred long years with no one there to give him warmth that he couldn't help but desire. He may have been a spirit of winter, but he craved for warmth just like anyone else, the only warmth that can comfort a person, one that only came from another person.

He stood at the edge of a cliff, the end of the continent Antarctica. He lifted his hand to his face, putting the object within his grasp into his line of sight. A golden canister with a face plastered at one end was what he held. It surprised Jack how it practically glowed around the dull white that Jack had come to know so well.

His throat ached from the sobs he'd been continuing to swallow. His eyes burned, rimmed with red from the tears he couldn't stop. He strangely felt hallow except for his heart that ached with every beat.

Why can't he do it? Why can't he just get rid of his toothbox, the thing that'd caused him so much trouble? Keeping it would cause only more trouble. Maybe he couldn't throw it way. Maybe it was a curse to always have it haunt him until he finally dies.

He was so tired of it- the pain that never stops. Why him? Why did everyone have someone when he had no one? Was he truly not worth it? But if so, why did the Moon drop him on this god forsaken earth? Why was he stuck if no one wanted him?

Why?

Nobody. There was nobody there for him from the beginning of his life. No one was there to hear him scream for someone to care. Nobody was there to see his tears. No one was there to hold him when he felt no hope. No one was ever there for him. Not even the guardians.

No, the guardians didn't care about him. They hated him. They saw him as trash. They saw him as a bug that they'd squish without a second thought. He wasn't anything to them. He was just a waste of space.

The same memory kept rewinding in his mind over and over so he'd never forget. It only made his eyes sting more.

**./../\..\.**

_**Flashback**_

It was Easter Sunday in Burgess. Grass covered the soft soil in lushes of greens. The trees had awakened from their winter slumber and reached for the sky. Their branches intertwined with neighboring trees, leaving rays of light to pass through the branches and fresh leaves. Spring was in the air.

Everything seemed perfect, except for the fact that the Easter Bunny hadn't arrived.

It was the day of the Easter Egg Hunt, and the Easter Bunny was to hide his colorful eggs in the forest for the children to find. But, why would the Easter Bunny be late? He had only one holiday each year. It couldn't have been that hard, could it?

Maybe, the Easter Bunny didn't actually exist. Maybe, it was just a big lie to get companies money for chocolate and other sweets they made like marshmallow puffs.

But, if the Easter Bunny wasn't real, did that mean that Santa Claus wasn't real, or the Tooth Fairy, or even Sandman?

Was it all a big lie told by their parents to get them to be good, to brush and floss their teeth, to go to bed for dreams?

These thought flew through each of the children's minds that day on Easter Sunday in Burgess. There were no eggs, so there mustn't be an Easter Bunny.

With sad and depressed faces, the children of Burgess made their way back to their homes, feeling melancholy.

What they didn't know was that the Easter Bunny was there. He was going to hide his eggs. But, he was too late. The children didn't see him as he stood in front of them offering them colorful eggs with abstract designs. Though they weren't his best, they were what he had left to offer since Pitch had destroyed the rest.

"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny," a little girl mumbled to herself with the edges of lips tugged down.

A baffled Pooka gasped in shock. "What? No that's not true! What do you mean there's no such thing as-"

The Easter Bunny cut off as a cold, stomach churning, ghost feeling left his insides hallow. The little girl walked through him with no acknowledgement that he stood there and had caused him physical pain. He couldn't breathe or think as the children stepped through him as if he didn't exist.

Letting out short gasp, he sighed. "They don'e believe in me," he whispered.

Jack came from the bushes off to side of the clearing. Spotting the guardians watching desperately as the children turned away from them and trekked towards their homes, Jack realized the true damage of those moments with Pitch. While he was in Pitch's lair, every egg had been smashed and not one child found an egg in the world. All because of Jack, the children no longer believed in the Easter Bunny.

A large Russian man turned towards the teen who had just arrived. "Jack, where were you? The nightmares attacked the tunnels, they smashed every eggs, nothing made it to the surface, not one egg in one town."

Another voice called for Jack's attention. Tooth flew over to Jack's side, sighing in relief for the boy's safety, but as quick as her smile played on her lips, it faded. "Where did you get that?" She pointed to the tooth canister in his hand.

"I was...I..."

"Where's Baby Tooth? Oh Jack, what have you done?" Her hands covered her mouth in horror as realization hit her like a freight train.

"This is why you weren't here? You were with Pitch!" North accused.

"No, listen," Jack tried to reason. They needed to hear his side, to understand what truly happen. They thought of him as a traitor. No, Jack wouldn't do that, not when they had finally chosen to care for him when no one else had. "I was-"

"He has to go."

All eyes turned to the Pooka crouched over in pain.

"What?" Jack questioned.

Bunny stood and glared at the winter spirit, the cause of his trouble. The Pooka hopped closer to the teenager with a hand raised. "We should never have trusted you!" He shouted as his fist connect with the boy's left cheek before any of the others could react.

All seemed to slow. Everything happened in what felt like hours.

Jack's feet lifted beneath him before his body could even touch the ground the hit was so hard. Jack fell to the grass covered earth with a thud. His cheek throbbed unbearably and his brain racked within his skull. His ears rung and his eye refused to focus.

"Bunny!" Tooth scolded and moved to Jack's side.

The Pooka with his face filled with absolute shock simply stood their staring at the child he just hit.

A child.

The thing he was supposed to protect. He was a guardian for the children, yet he raised his hand to a child.

Shouts from North were suppressed as he questioned whether this truly happened. Disbelief never left his face. Did he just strike a child? A child? Bunny always gave hope to children with abusive parents, but he was now the bringer of a child's pain, the shatterer of hope.

Everything Bunny stood- a guardian, a bringer of hope, a protector of innocence and from the evils of the world- for dissolved in only seconds from one action. How could he ever call himself a guardian after this?

Tooth grabbed onto Jack's arm to help bring him to his feet, but he only swatted her away like an annoyance. He struggled to his feet, first lifting himself on his elbows, then balancing in the pads of his feet, and slowing rising to stand straight. Bruising already was visible on the pale boy's face.

With eyes brimmed with threatening tears to fall, Jack stared at the Pooka. No, he wouldn't give the creature that satisfaction of seeing him hurt.

Only hours before the two were getting along. It seemed like the things between them were turning around. But no, Bunny never cared for Jack. He was only a tool for their use to be thrown away once they got what they wanted. Jack just managed to make their betrayal to him quicker. At least this way they wouldn't have led him on to actually believe they cared for him.

They had 300 years to speak to him, to just acknowledge his existence other than scolding him for the blizzard in 1968. Jack felt so stupid to believe that they wanted him around. Their company was by force from the Man in the Moon. If it hadn't been for him, Jack would have continued to be alone, Pitch wouldn't have even looked at him.

They never knew how much Jack craved for their attention, to just have them look at him, to not see through him, to be touched instead of being stepped through. What was better: being unrecognized or hated by them? Both seemed too harsh, yet those were Jack's options. He was never given the chance to have a family. The Man in the Moon put him there and left him to wallow in his confusion, like a newborn baby left in the woods filled with wolves. He had no chance from the very beginning.

Maybe it was all a mistake? Maybe the Man in the Moon hadn't meant to bring Jack into the world. It seemed most logical, didn't it? No human could see him and the spirits ignored him intentionally.

With out a word passing between the two spirits, the Pooka and boy know for bringing snow, Jack allowed the wind to encase him in its embrace headed for the skies, going South.

"Wait!" Tooth and North cried in synchronization, both shouting frantically for the spirit of winter to turn back around.

The hummingbird hybrid turned to the Pooka with feathers ruffled, puffing in and out from her badly hidden anger. "How dare you! What were you thinking!? You just hit Jack! How could you! I though he was your friend!"

Tooth took for the skies as well and followed the fleeing boy.

North looked at the still wide-eyed and confused Easter Bunny. "There are now words to make this okay. What you did was wrong and now Jack is hurting, more than just from the punch." He turned away and pulled a snow globe from his pocket. Guessing, he whispered for the South Pole, Antarctica. Before stepping into the now swirling vortex, he half turned to the Pooka. "Think of what you'd done." He vanished into the portal and into Antarctica's tundra, leaving the Pooka alone in Burgess.

It all happened so quickly. Ever fiber in his body didn't think of stopping his raised hand until it was too late. Did that make him any better than Pitch, a bringer of pain and fear? Will Jack ever talk to him again? Why would he? Bunny just kicked a boy who was already on the ground.

He was worse than Pitch. In only one action, he shattered all hope.

_**End Of Flashback**_

**./../\..\.**

_"It was a mistake," you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you." _

_―David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary_

**./../\..\.**

**Give thanks to lovepuppy316 for coming up with the title. You go, girl!**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter. Please press that follow button and review. I just love reviews and they make me write faster. Tell me what you think will happen next, how you feel about the characters, anything. **

**Thank you, and I should have the next chapter posted on May 20th. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Shout-outs:**

**Darkblade County: And as always, you're the first to review! :D Ooh, ever had a cookie with an oreo baked into it but not crushed? They're amazing! **

**Ocracoke0Island-Dreams: I'm so glad you like. It's good to see readers come back and hear they were inspired to do their own versions/fics!**

**VividRegulator: Devotion, an ongoing brain, and no sleep... I'm exhausted, but oh well!**

**lovepuppy316: Oh, have fun beating up Bunny. Don't worry, I'll make him feel horrible in the next few chapters *evil grin***

**AlexJohnD: YEP took me long enough! Glad you liked the quote. I'm going to try to have one for each chapter.**

**Thank you for those who are following or have reviewed. I appreciate it. Now, onto Chapter 2!:**

_**Believed In, Feared **__**In**_

Jack had flown off without a word, but the Pooka saw the hope within the boy crumble in merely seconds. Only seconds. It took only seconds for everything in that boy to shatter like glass, and he caused it. Bunny broke him with one action, shriveling the boy's hope into nothing.

He destroyed hope. How ironic, for he was the guardian of hope.

A part of him screamed at him, scolded him for being so cruel to the boy, while another part told him that the boy deserved it for ruining Easter. It was his fault. He wasn't there when the guardians needed him. He was the only who could truly fight Pitch. He was their greatest _weapon_ at stopping Pitch Black. But where was he?

He'd been with Pitch, their enemy. Jack went to their enemy to get his damned toothbox when the guardians had already promised to get it for him after the threat of Pitch was over, and what did he do? He went to Pitch's hideout, and got his toothbox.

And where was the little fairy he called Baby Tooth? He probably traded her for his teeth.

He deserved what he got...

No, no he didn't. Nobody deserves to have their hope shattered like that. Even if he did meet up with Pitch, something drew him to the dark man. He was desperate. Bunny knew now that the kid had no memories of where he came from, only that he woke up one night on a lake looking up at the Moon and with no one there to show him how to control his power.

He'd always been alone. And now- now he was alone once more because of Bunny.

He had to fix it. He had to, for Jack, for the other guardians, for the children... For himself.

He had to make things right.

**./../\..\.**

The tooth canister held sweet nothings, curses disguised as promises. He hated it, but couldn't fully reject the temptation. It truly was a deadly thing.

Now as he stared at it, he wanted nothing more than to throw it across the edge of the cliff into the depths of the ocean to never be seen again. But he wanted to open it, to see who he was before that night on the lake where so much pain and sorrow started his life. He wanted to know more, and yet he's disgusted with the idea of using it when it only hurts him and others around him.

A curse, it was.

"I thought this might happen."

Jack knew that voice. He'd know that voice from anywhere for all the pain it'd caused. It took Baby Tooth, made the guardians distrust him. He was the reason Jack was there.

"I was just trying to show you what was unavoidable."

In a flash, Jack twist ninety degrees while sending a blue magic from his staff towards his target, but a wave of black sand made a wall between Jack's target and his magic. The ice froze the sand, but didn't go through the wave.

"Nah-ah," said the man as the wave well, revealing the man behind him. His grey skin and black hair and clothes made him stand out from all of the white. But what caught Jack's eyes was the man's golden cat eyes. "Would you really treat me like the guardians treated you?" The boy visibly flinched. "That'd make you know better than them, you know."

His grip on his staff tightened even more. Pitch had done so much... But he had a point. Would he be no better than the guardians if he didn't give Pitch a chance to speak. He hadn't attacked him yet, only blocked Jack's shot. He was here to negotiate, not fight...

If he really was there to only speak to him, then why would Jack attack him? That'd make him no better than Bunnymund.

No, he would never be like that Pooka.

He lowered his staff, his grip never ceasing.

Pitch held his grin back. "At least your not as cruel and hard-headed as that so called guardian rabbit. You at least let me talk instead of punching me before I get a chance to explain myself."

Jack flinched at the words. "How did you-"

"I, for one thing, care what happens to others unlike those so called guardians. Earlier, I was just trying to ward you off before you got hurt, but I can see I failed."

Jack's eyes cast down to his feet. Every Pitch'd said in his underground home was true. Everything. He was right about his fears, he was right about the guardians never believing him, never trusting him. Pitch was just telling him what would happen, but Jack didn't listen and was hurt more emotionally and physically he'd ever thought possible.

The man in black stepped forward. Placing a hand on the boy's back, he guided him away from the cliff. "Tell me, Jack, what do you see," he asked, staring into the vast white.

White and no color. There were no greens or blues or reds or yellows. There were no plants poking through the snow. There where no critters scrounging for food. There was nothing but white.

"Do you see how different you are compared to the others? You don't have life surrounding you. The only colors you know are white, grey, and black... How cold."

"What do you know?" he blurted out, stepping away from the man and raising his staff once more. "You don't know what I've gone through, so don't act like you do."

"But Jack," he said while holding his palms outward in surrender, "I do. You see, I too know what it feels like to have no one, to long for someone but to always be shoved aside by others. Like you, I'm not surrounded by life or color, and I was never given the chance."

Never having a chance? That is dooming someone to darkness without a reason. If Pitch was never given a chance, then it's no wonder he was where he was now- an enemy with no one to care for what happens to him. Was Jack the same way? Was he really given a chance? Maybe, although, the guardians only dealt with him so they could use him as a tool. They never cared... Nobody cared about Jack Frost.

"I was alone, and I could never get close to anyone. You and I, we are so much alike, it's incredible."

Alike? Now that Jack thought about it, it was true.

"For a long time, Jack Frost, I thought nobody knew the loneliness I felt or longed for a family like I do. But you- you know the pain I've felt, don't you?" Pitch stared with yellow cat eyes at icy blue. Jack couldn't read the man's expression. Pain? Sorrow? Or, is it all a trick? Is this just for show to get what he wants?

The golden eyes seemed to plead him desperately. Maybe, it wasn't a trick.

The raven-haired man sighed deeply and stepped back around to look out towards the Antarctic Ocean from the cliff with hands clasped behind him. "Have you ever thought of changing that- changing from being alone?" He turned to look at Jack. "Are you as sick as I am of being alone, of having no one believing you? Do you wished to be seen as much as I have?"

"...Yes," he whispered. He was sick of being alone. He was sick of believing he'd forever be alone like those first three hundred years. He was afraid he'd never know why he'd forever be alone. Why could no normal humans see him? Why did even the spirits who could see him not show him who he was, how to control his powers, to simply be his friend?

"I've had an idea, a way to get believers. You and I are sick of being pushed around by other spirits and not being acknowledged by the people of this Earth. You may wonder why I've done what I have. In truth, it is because I want to be seen, just like you." He stepped closer to Jack. "Tell me, is it better to be feared than to not exist at all?"

Jack was shocked. It wasn't what he was expecting.

_Is it better to be feared?_

It was a question of being human. Is it better to be hated or to have lived? Is it better to not be wanted or to not even exist to be hated or loved? Would he rather be feared but respected rather than be seen as a waist of space, to be nothing more than the dirt beneath their feet?

No he wanted more than that. He want to be surrounded by people, people who could see him, see his tears, hear his crying, hold him when all is hope was lost.

Hope. What a lie, it was. Hope didn't get him anywhere. It only made me expect something that never came. He hoped the guardians would accept him as an equal or at least as something more than a nuisance, but look where he is now. He was wallowing on the continent of Antarctica debating whether or not to throw his teeth over the cliff to never be found again or to make the guardians even more angry with him, if that was possible. He was after all, talking to their worst enemy.

"Jack, you don't have to be alone. I believe in you, and I know the children will, too, but the guardians aren't going to allow that."

_I believe in you._

_I believe you._

_I believe._

**Believe.**

He... Pitch Black, his enemy, believed in him?

"The guardians are power hungry." The dark man balled his fist, his eyebrows knitted together. "They want to be on top and use others for their own use. I've seen them use dozens of other spirits and throw them away after they fulfilled their plan, and I'm sick of it. They're trying the same thing with you, using you, but why give them what they want? Why not make them feel the pain they've caused?"

Pitch stepped closer once more and held his hand out towards the frost boy. "Don't you want to finally be on the other side of the results, to finally be on top?"

Jack stared down at the hand held out to him. He knew what Pitch was asking. He knew taking his hand would mean no turning back. It meant leaving all that he ever knew. But was that really a bad thing? That meant deserting the solitude he'd known for so long. He would be cutting off any ties with the guardians.

Where were they now? Did they care that he left, or did they just go back to North's place to plan how to take care of Pitch, the man in front of him? Did they ever care? They certainly didn't mind letting him go. Bunnymund didn't mind striking him.

No, they didn't care about him.

They never did.

He slowly, but surely, lifted his own right arm, extending it towards his once enemy, until he heard the shout of his name coming from the distance.

"Jack," a female shouted... Tooth?

The winter spirit's eyes turned to see the green object in the sky becoming more define as it got closer. Tooth, the Tooth Fairy who had an attraction for his teeth, nothing more.

He saw her stop her flight, gasping loudly. She must've now identified Pitch, her enemy. She probably realized what was happening. She wouldn't trust Jack anymore. They would come after him, even if he refused Pitch now. They'd see him as a threat, as a traitor.

It was now or never, he knew. And with that, he took Pitch's hand, a symbol of trust, honesty, partnership.

"Welcome to a new beginning," Pitch grinned as shadows encased them in darkness.

**./../\..\.**

_"Sad how the same people who say they care about you are the same ones who tear you down when they get the chance."_

_-Nishan Panwar _

**./../\..\.**

**As always, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts. Do you like what's here so far? Anything you think needs to be added? Please! I just want to hear your voices!**

**Anyhow, next chapter will be posted on May 25th. If I get over 10 reviews, I'll post on the 23rd.**

**Also, go check out an art piece I did on my deviantart page of a swallow. My username on the website is Janazza. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT AND PLEASE REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Shout-outs:**

**lovepuppy316: As long as none of the punches come at me, I'll be yelling "Uppercut! Cross! Kick 'im!" **

**AlexJohnD: YEP! Jack has his toothbox still, and I'm glad you checked out the swallow! I can't even explain the tiredness that me after I finished it :)**

**Its Chris Pine: Can I just say I'm jealous of your username? **

**Darkblade 2.0: Haha publishing means coming up with my own story first with original characters and original setting and original theme and ... originality. Glad you like the quotes. I try to use them to help construct each chapter or use as a theme. **

**Chapter 3:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

Did her eyes deceive her? She _was_ far away when she spotted Jack's signature blue hoodie in the surrounding white. But, no, she saw him. Her bird-like eyesight gave her an advantage, but now it seemed to only be a curse.

It couldn't have happened. No, Jack was on their side. He was their friend, their ally...

Did he...

Had he joined the Nightmare King's side?

**./../\..\.**

North had just arrived at Antarctica after searching Burgess for the winter boy only to find nothing. The crystal portal died behind him as his blue, big eyes searched the vast white until he heard the sobs.

Sobs?

He turned around, finding his friend, the hummingbird hybrid, hiccuping and gasping for breath as she sat on her knees with her body hunched forward, her arms wrapped around herself to comfort herself.

"Tooth!" he shouted, running towards her. He slid down beside her. "Tooth, what's wrong?"

She clasped onto him like a life support "Jack... No, Jack... He..." She got no farther. Her voice was left in her throat as she choked back her tears.

He rubbed her back soothingly. "Shh, everything will be alright. Tooth, it will be okay."

**./../\..\.**

He had to get there. He had to make things right. His rabbit feet thumped loudly, echoing in the tunnel he hopped through, trying to reach the Antarctic. He knew he was there, he had to be.

He jumped out of his tunnel, finally reaching his destination. The wind frosted his fur, making him shiver. "Jack?!" he shouted. "Jack! Where are you, Jack? Please, Jack!"

_Dammit, where are you?_ Even with the circumstances, the Pooka couldn't help but be angry

"Bunny!"

The said Pooka turned to see Tooth and North.

Tooth. She was sobbing into North's jacket. "Tooth?"

She looked up at him, fire blazing in her eyes. Those violet eyes were rimmed with red, her feathers ruffled and eyebrows knitted together. "You!" She cried while shoving away from North and towards the Pooka. She slammed her fist onto his chest, banging . "You did this. You're the reason Jack doesn't trust us. You caused this! You made Jack..." Her pounding fist stopped. "He joined Pitch... Our friend joined Pitch."

Her tears didn't hold back. She gave all of her energy to the two streams dripping down her face and off her chin. As he wrapped his arms around her, he felt her tears dampen his grey fur. She didn't fight him, only cried, gripping his fur in a death grip.

_You caused this,_ she'd shouted to him. It still continued to ring in his ears.

He felt so hopeless. It was all his fault, he knew it even without Tooth's words.

**./../\..\.**

His stomach churned and his head swam as the shadows seeped away from him, revealing gray. Gray walls, gray floor, gray light. It was so dull, so dark, so... sad. It brought back memories of when he was there last, when he lost Baby Tooth. It's funny to think he was there not too long ago, sort of a de ja vu thing.

Jack saw the bird cages once more containing the Tooth's mini fairies, innocent little fairies just doing their jobs. Speaking of fairies, "Where's Baby Tooth?" he asked aloud.

Pitch, who'd already been walking to a hole in the wall, another tunnel that would take them deeper into the lair of his, turned to the winter boy. "The little fairy you had with you? Not to worry, she's alright." He continued down the corridor with Jack on his heels.

He knew not where they were going, but he knew he had to keep going. There was no turning back from what he chose.

"Jack, I must ask you," Pitch started as he twisted the knob on a door and stepped inside. "What made you choose not to face Toothiana?"

Pitch stepped inside with Jack right behind him. As Jack expected, there was more grey. At least there was a glass table and a blazing fireplace that brought orange into the room. Not much of an improvement, but it helped with the dullness. In front of that fireplace were two couches with that glass table between them which Jack and Pitch took, sitting opposite of one another.

"I..." Jack didn't really know why he didn't stop and speak to Tooth. Guilt? Shame? Knowing that she probably thought of him as a disgrace? "I couldn't stand what she might've done. I knew she wouldn't stop to talk to an enemy, and I'm sure she's already told the others about me trusting you." He closed his eyes and sighed. "They hate me."

He felt the couch cushion beside him dip in from the weight of another person and then the hand that touched his back to comfort him. "Jack, I'm sorry, but there was no friendship beforehand."

The teen tensed at his words. His hands, hidden in the pocket of his sweatshirt, felt the tooth box pulse as if it had its own heart beat.

"I know, it's difficult to think about, but there have been other played by the guardians, others that have played the guardians' game and were thrown aside once they didn't do what they wanted them to." Jack felt something pushed into his hands. He opened his eyes to see a cup filled with chilled hot chocolate, ridding the "hot" part. "Don't blame yourself. It's just how they work."

He stared into the cup blankly, watching the ice grow from his freezing touch. "I thought they were protectors. You know, helping others."

"No. They're like children on a playground, always wanting to be on top."

Jack shook his head. "Why did I ever help them?" he asked himself openly. "I feel so stupid."

"Don't blame yourself. They're selfish, always doing whatever they want to get what they want even if that means hurting others to do so. Notice how nearly no other spirits are recognized by the children? How can they when the guardians refuse to share the belief? They are cruel yet call themselves protectors when their fellow spirits are left in the darkness to never be seen." Pitch stood from his seat and, once more, held a hand out to the teen. "Jack Frost, it's time that you show them that we won't sit back quietly and live with no belief. You want to be believed in, too, don't you. You want to be seen, too?"

An infamous side grin spread onto his face. Isn't that what he wanted? To be believed in, to be seen, to be respected, to be treated as a living person?

Those guardians? What a joke. Pitch was right. They were only power hungry and would strike down anyone who got in their way and use those people, twisting their emotions and throwing them away once they're done.

He grasped the outstretched hand once more.

"Let's do it."

Pitch smiled for the boy did not know what he'd done. He didn't know that Pitch Black had taken that moment of comforting him to slip his nightmare sand into the hood of the boy's sweatshirt.

**./../\..\.**

North had finally gone back to his workshop with Toothiana in tow. Her home was so incredibly empty after the fearlings' attack that she couldn't bear to remain there. Besides, they'd proven just how vulnerable her home was to attacks. After landing the sleigh in the tunnel in the mountainside, he guided the Tooth Fairy back to the workshop with an arm around her shoulders.

Her eyes wer still angrily rimmed in red with stained tear tracks down her cheeks. She sighed deeply. "I'm sorry for acting that way."

He looked down at her as he walked down the snowy tunnel. "For what?"

"Everything," she sniffled. "For going at Bunny like that, for not stopping Jack. I should have known, but I didn't stop him from leaving Burgess. I accused Jack before letting him say his side of the story. Even before all of this, I had his baby teeth- Jack's baby teeth. I could have saved us all this trouble if only I-"

"Shh," he hushed her softly. "Don't blame yourself. We can't live on past and 'what ifs.' We have ta be strong."

He felt her nodded against his side as they entered the main room of the workshop, the globe room.

All was still the same except the number of lights on his globe. Every minute that passed, a light snuffed out. There were only so many children in the world. He had to stop this soon before he starts feeling the effects.

Being a guardian has its consequences. Yes, he is stronger with children's belief, but there's a catch. Once he loses their belief, that power will dissipate until he might just fade away into nothing. He, Tooth, and Bunny would all disappear. There would no longer be any Easter egg hunts or teeth put under pillows in exchange for money or toys put under trees...

There wouldn't be any more dreams, he realized. The sandman was gone. Even if the belief was to be restored, his friend wouldn't come back.

"It's strange."

North looked down at Tooth whom he was still holding.

"It's strange to think how we've been around for so long, but everything seems to crash down so quickly."

He nodded in understanding. She meant the belief. It had taken hundreds of years for each of them to reach where they were now, yet Pitch was destroying that in only days. It's strange to think that it takes so much time to create but only moments to destroy.

He gave her a tight squeeze. "We'll be alright. We always have."

A shout came from behind him in yetish. North released Tooth to turn and see the creature that had called him, a little yeti of ginger fur but cream around his mouth. Blue, wonderous eyes made contact with sparkling green.

"Eddie? W'at is it?"

Gasping for breath, he spoke in his language so Tooth did not understand. _"Where's Jack? He said he'd play with me."_

He paused. How was he to respond to Jack not being there...

How do you explain to a child that Jack wasn't their friend anymore? Eddie was so young, Phil's kid. Is it right to tell him or let Phil explain it to him?

"... Eddie, Jack won't be coming back."

The little yeti squinted his eyes in confusion.

Tooth couldn't stand it anymore. She felt the tears threatening to pour from the reminder. Fluttering her wings, she flew out of the room and down the hall, not looking back.

**./../\..\.**

He was back at his Warren, sitting beneath a tree with an egg in paw with a paintbrush in the other. This was his therapy. Art was what he used to calm himself, to give him time to the brush dipped in blue, he delicately added spots and swirls. Painting was his passion, yet it didn't feel the same.

He caused it. He turned their friend against them, to think that he couldn't trust them. Tooth refused to talk to him now though it didn't surprise him. He knew he hated himself more than any other.

He caused this.

North'd gone off with Tooth to comfort her. Sandy...

Sandy wasn't there. He was gone and there was no bringing him back. The thought of their friend dying- it was harsh. He remembered so well how he couldn't do anything except watch as an arrow went through his friend's back. He'd watched as his friend's eyes widened in pain as black covered his body. Black sand had engulfed him in a wave, and there was nothing left. He was gone.

And now, he'd lost another friend in only moments. But this time- this time he caused it. Was he truly a guardian when all he's done is hurt the boy? Before MiM spoke of him, he hated the kid's guts. Bunny took every chance he had to bash the kid... But then they became friends, allies even. Sure, their conversations were not technically civil, but they considered each other as allies in battle.

So why did he strike him? Why did he attack his friend? The kid only wanted to ft in, to be believed in, to no longer be alone. He-

_Crack._

The Pooka felt the yoke dampen his paw, dripping onto the summer green grass. He looked down at the broken colored pieces of egg in his hands. The outside was covered in purples and blues and yellows, covered in beauty. But once the outside was torn away, the ugly inside was exposed, something vile and ugly.

Was that what he was? Was he only covered in a shell, hiding his ugliness? His sins?

It's no wonder Tooth didn't want to speak to him. She knew what he was:

_A Monster._

******./../\..\.**

It was dark.

It was cold.

His friends were missing, and he felt suppressed, like being crushed at all sides. At least he didn't feel any true pain. His body was numb... He couldn't feel his fingertips or his toes. He actually didn't feel any of his limbs.

What was going on?

**********************./../\..\.**

___"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live"_

___-Norman Cousins_

**********************./../\..\.**

***cough, cough* Quote. Bunny *COUGH* Geez, I made Bunny all depressed. Sorry for making Tooth such a woman... haha. I know, this chapter is boring, but it's a necessary transition to get to other events. That and I've been sick but can't afford to miss school since there's only about... 4 weeks left? So, I've sucking up and going to school and keeping up with you guys... yah. ****Those who know who Eddie is, you're awesome :)**

**New chapter will be posted on May 26th**

**PRESS THAT REVIEW BUTTON AND WRITE SOMETHING OUTRAGEOUS! I'LL LOVE YOU IF YOU DO!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Shout-outs:**

**AlexJohnD: Haha glad you liked Eddie. Sadly, I can't actually fit him in this fic! But at least he got his moment last chappie. Oh, and the swallow on DA I did in the course of three days. The time that I worked on it would be ... maybe 7 hours? I stopped counting after 5, but I guess somewhere around that.**

**Its Chris Pine: Ugh, I know what you mean. They need to just slow down a little and develop the story a bit more (Then again, I spend way to much time writing so I shouldn't really say anything).**

**vividRegulator: That fact that I admire your writing as well makes it even better to hear you say that! Thank you!**

**Darkblade 2.0: Yep, I just have a weak immune system (at least my mom is a neat freak and cleans the whole house twice a week. haha). Wait, how can you already be out of school! Can I move to where you live!? (I just realizd that in this fic and Sickness that Eddie is introduced with giving him really bad news... I'm horrible to him).**

**Guest: Ha, angst is my love! Don't worry, we'll be depressed together if that's the case. Glad you liked Tooth, but in the books she's represented as a cold person who's also a great queen with sword and is BA... But in the movie, she's a chick. **

**Nite-Fury1: Actually, I don't think I've seen that. Heck, I haven't been on tumblr at all really. I'm trying to just stick to FB and Deviantart. **

**So sorry that the story is progressing so slowly. That's just how I work. Just bear with. I promise it will get better. Thanks. Now, here is Chapter 4:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_It was dark._

_It was cold._

His friends were missing, and he felt suppressed, like being crushed at all sides. At least he didn't feel any true pain. His body was numb... He couldn't feel his fingertips or his toes. He actually didn't feel any of his limbs.

What was going on?

He felt so... off, like he was underwater where all senses were distorted but worse for he couldn't feel his body. He couldn't see, he only felt that he was there but with no purpose.

That is until he felt the warmth. He felt the light shine onto him. Finding his eyes once more, he opened them and peered upward where the rays came. The Moon.

_You're friends need you. Go to them._

The man looked around himself, seeing that he laid in a pit of nightmare sand. The black sand around him changed from depressing black to vibrant gold. Once more, the feeling in his limbs came back along with a rush of energy.

He... The last thing he remembered was the sharp pain in his back, the coldness that crept over him, the fear in his friends' eyes, the darkness engulfing him.

His friends. He needed to find his friends.

_Go to them,_ the Man in the Moon repeated.

**./../\..\.**

It was strange, being so confused between hatred, anger, sorrow and regret. Why did he care that Jack had traded sides? Why did it affect him so much to hear that he left with Pitch? Jack already betrayed them by trading one of Tooth's mini fairies for his tooth box. He should have nothing to do with Jack. _He_ betrayed them. But, then again, he must've driven the kid to do it. He was desperate, for his memories, to figure out who he was, who was his family, if he was ever loved, if he ever belonged. Bunny understood that.

Maybe he shouldn't have been so cruel to him. Maybe if he'd only welcomed the boy, they wouldn't be in the mess they were in.

Maybe's. What if's.

Sitting beneath his tree at dusk, the sun's light ebbing away, he rubbed over his eyes in circles with his paws. How was he supposed to fix this?

And them came the gush of wind with a scent carried, an odor more like. It reeked of something foul, something cold and painful. Fear.

He looked up towards the sky where the wind blew. In front of him was a mass of dark shadows, sort of like a cloud, a dark cloud threatening to pour. But it wasn't a cloud that releases rain. No, it was shadows. Fearlings, hundreds of them, all coming towards his Warren in a stampede no one would ever want to get caught in.

In the mass of darkness, the Pooka could see blue peek out near he back next to another figure of black.

No, this couldn't be happening. Tooth- Tooth was telling the full truth. He really did it, he really did...

Jumping to his feet, Bunny pulled out his boomerangs as the surged toward him, their white pupilless eyes gazing at him, watching their prey. As they came forward, his eyes remained locked on the boy in blue beside Pitch Black. Jack Frost, too, stared at him with a blank gaze, showing no emotion or thoughts of what he was doing, just watching.

They were on his land, attacking him. How foolish they were for once they reached his fields, eggs of all colors hopped up into the air and disperse into puffs of smoke, clouding the nightmares' vision. In their blindness, they stopped, looking around to find their target.

Out of nowhere a boomerang spliced through a head of a fearling. As it curled around, it hit another two. Then came another flick of a boomerang, taking out another four that happened to be in its way. Now catching on to where the weapons were coming from, they all ran towards where Bunny's tree was, where the boomerangs had come from only to find nothing there but stones around the area.

What they didn't know was the importance of those stones. Rising from the ground, egg warriors, the stones, rushed towards the unsuspecting fearlings and knocking into them, showing the green grass sprinkled with black.

**./../\..\.**

Pitch didn't expect this. But then again if that rabbit has been around for so long, he must've had some sort of protective systems, especially with him being such a violent character. He should've known he wouldn't be as easy to take over as the lovely Toothiana. He was a fighter.

He'd thought that with the loss of belief with the extravagant Easter disaster that the Pooka would have been weak. Though with him taking out a few of his pets, he'd proven not to be so damaged.

At least not yet.

The dark man looked down at the boy beside him. The teen's icy blue eyes clouded with worry, confusion and anger. Was that a good or bad sign to Jack being on his side, or did he question his allegiance? Pitch lent down and said, "This is for the best, you know."

The few words snapped the boy's attention to the man, his eyes studying him, searching for something as Pitch did to figure out what he was thinking. Jack sighed, turning his eyes back to the land below him and put his hood up.

Pitch smiled inwardly at the action for the teen didn't know what was in the hood. He didn't know of the nightmare sand that had filled his hood in wait to reach him. Jack didn't know that when he lifted the hood that the nightmare sand had slipped inside his ear canal.

"Notice he didn't even wait a moment to try to speak to you, just went into battle? He already considers you an enemy."

That quickly? Bunny just gave up on him? Just like that? Jack wasn't sure what to think about his previous allies, his friends, the only ones that ever needed him for something. But just like that, they rid that small bond that had grown between them and went straight to attacking him without attempting to negotiate. They already hated him... He wasn't sure how to act. He was in a mixed emotion of anger and sadness plus longing. Did he really mean that little to the Pooka, to the others as well?

Little did the winter spirit know that the black sand was what twisted his thoughts, suppressing his better judgement.

He spotted the Pooka off to the right, near a tunnel for him to take as a quick escape. "There," Jack pointed to the other man. "He's over there."

Pitch smirked. "Excellent, Jack."

Whistling to his nightmares, he sent to where the rabbit had rabbit had gone. Jack only watched as the dark horses countered around his ex-ally, surrounding him in a black sand tornado.

A smirk crept onto the teen's face. This was what he wanted. He wanted that kangaroo to feel the loneliness and darkness that he'd felt, the fear and pain that he felt. Isn't that what he always wanted? Right?

The platform of nightmare sand they stood on lowered to the ground, dropping them on the sprinkled grass. Indeed it was strange to step on that grass once more, to feel its softness on his callused feet. He didn't think he'd stand under the Australia's sun again. Funny how it seemed so different to the sun in Burgess. And the there was the bright colors his element never met- the pinks and yellows, oranges and reds or purples. All the life that existed in those fields of the warren were not his and never would be.

Envy wasn't a strong enough word to describe his desire. He loathed the kangaroo along with the other guardians. The gray hare was acknowledged by other spirits, loved by children, existing in childhood when Jack was never given the choice.

The sand solidified around the Pooka's arms and legs, binding his arms behind him and forcing him to his knees, but the rabbit only glared.

"Good to see you, Bunnymund. How's life treating you?" Pitch joked.

"Bloody find, arse-face," he retorted, his eyes never leaving Pitch's.

The dark man stepped closer to Jack. "Now, now, you shouldn't use such language around a young boy." To add on to his little act, he put his hands over the winter boy's ears. Jack didn't react, only watched the Easter Bunny for remorse or fear in the situation he was in or something, but he only watched Pitch with a stern look.

"So, what lies have ya told 'im, hmm? What sweet lil' nothin's have ya been tellin' the kid?"

_Why did he care?_ a voice in Jack's head asked, but the boy didn't know that it was the nightmare sand's influence.

Pitch laughed, leaning closer to the rabbit. "And what about you? What about everything you've told him? You think you're better?" He chuckled once more. "You're nothing but a pest." He moved away from the animal, clasping his hands behind him and turning to Jack. "You see this? This is a person whom doesn't know when to stop even when his life hangs in the balance. What a lost cause."

"Lost cause?!" the rabbit cried. "You mean that we continue to fight? Sure, I can be stubborn. Hope is stubborn, too. But no matter what happens, i'll fight. I'll fight until there's nothing left of me. I'll fight for my friends, for the kids, for good."

Sneering, Pitch questioned, "Then explain why you didn't fight for Jack Frost."

His eyes widened, his mouth gaped, but no words left it. For the first time, the Pooka looked at his once ally, the person he had hurt carelessly. After all the thinking the gray hare had done, he couldn't find the right words to say to Jack, nor did he think about saying it while being a captive. "Jack,... I'm sorry. I will make this up to yo-"

"Don't!" The winter spirit practically screamed. He was sick of it. Sick of people saying such useless words, waiting for their chance to stab him in the back again or desert him to only have the company of his shadow._ No, not again_. "You're only saying anything because you're worried about yourself. Don't lie to me!" He shook his head while closing his eyes. "Don't waste your breath."

Bunny couldn't say anything. Jack thought that lowly of him?

"Jack," Pitch called, putting his hands on the frustrated teen's shoulders, "Now is your chance." Like a magnet, black sand that littered the grass was drawn to his left hand. With his hand, it formed long and narrow. A dagger, but the hilt was designed into the form of a horse, the eyes glowing white. Bunny recognized the blade as a mughal dagger. "Make him pay the price for crossing you. Make him pay for the pain he's caused."

His anger drained, the blood flushing from his face. Jack eyed the jade dagger, the sculpting of the mare on the hilt, the curve of the blade, the sharp point that would pierce skin with only a small amount of pressure.

_Come on, _a part of him encouraged,_ You know you want to. You know he should be punished and stopped before anyone else gets hurt. He deserves it._

Without realizing it until the cool touched his skin, he grabbed the dagger.

His icy blue, confused eyes met pleading emerald as the distance between them shrunk. Right foot after the left, continuing until he was no more than a foot away from him. They searched each other's face, trying to read the other's mind. Did either one regret what they'd done or were doing? Were they angry or sad?

Pain was visible on the winter boy's face as he took the dagger in both hands, lifting it higher... What was he doing? Did he truly hate the rabbit so much that he'd kill him? But,... He and Pitch- they were trying to help the other spirits to become known, too. They wanted to fix the world.

To do that, did the Easter bunny have to die?

The world started to shake... No, he was shaking. His body trembled so visibly, any from a hundred yards away could see him shaking in his nonexistent boots. Was this really what he wanted, was it the heat of the moment? Would killing Bunnymund be justice or murder?...

The nightmare king frowned at the hesitation. His nightmare sand wasn't influencing him enough. Focusing on the sand, Pitch twisted the black sand shrouding Jack's judgement from the inside He would not be defeated this easily, and that meant for Jack to do what he wanted.

_He deserves it,_ Jack thought as his hands steadied. _He should be punished._

"NOW!" Bunny shouted.

The ground beneath Jack shifted and moved away, finding himself standing on top of a stone warrior egg. More and more came from the ground, one knocking Pitch off his feet and trying to smash him, but the man rolled to the side.

It tried rushing Pitch once more only to be swallowed in nightmare sand. As the sand dissipated, the stone was left in rubble.

Jack's attention was pulled back to the warrior he stood on as it tried to ram its top into a nearby tree to crush the boy in between, but the winter spirit hopped off just in time. It came at him again, trying to ram him, but he side stepped swiftly, spinning around and releasing magic from his staff which froze the stone warrior.

Another three ran towards him though he froze the ground beneath them and watched as they slipped on the ice and failed to hit him. Using his staff, he hit one of the eggs, causing it to split in half and did so to the others before they could get back up.

More and more came, but he spliced them easily or froze them into mini icebergs. Pitch, too, had no problem with attacking the warrior eggs, especially with his fearlings taking up most of the job.

The spirit of winter caught a glimpse of gray fur before the creature jumped into its tunnel, escaping the battle.

"Dammit," he heard the nightmare kind curse. "Finish up these idiots. The target is gone." Responding to their master's command, the stallions stampeded and kicked and bit the stone warriors, crumbling them into heaps beneath their hooves. The eggs had no chance.

**************./../\..\.**

_"Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe." _

_― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_******  
**_  
_

**************./../\..\.**

**************I'll admit, I have no idea what's going on with Bunny. He's just a very interestingly emotional character. The dagger that I mentioned, it's actually quite beautiful. Look it up.**

**************PLEASE tell me your thoughts. Anything! Even if you're thinking_ "the sky is blue."_**

**************New chapter on May 29th**


	5. Chapter 5

**Shout-outs:**

**Darkblade 2.0: OMG can I use that quote later on?! I need it! I use Brainyquote, Goodreads, and my natural love for books to get the quotes needed. **

**AlexJohnD: Ah, I guess I didn't really explain that part. It was meant to be very vague for you guys to figure out. Reread it and try to figure out what character could be associated with the scene (it's in present time). You guys will know in a few chapters anyways, but try guessing.**

**Kagirinai-Eternal: Then I'm doing my job right!**

**lovepuppy316: Oh, please. Fill free to hate them both. That's the point of the fic :)**

**Night-Fury1: Lolz Sorry, not where I was going. Not a bad idea, though!**

**CHAPTER 5 IS HERE:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_"We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it."_

_― Tennessee Williams, The Mild Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore  
_

**./../\..\.**

He'd gotten his revenge, hadn't he? He forced the kangaroo out of his home, leaving him to seek refuge elsewhere. He destroyed the warrior eggs that had been there for hundreds upon hundreds of years protecting their master and the Easter eggs. He got what he wanted, so why did he feel so empty?

Jack lent on his staff, watching as Pitch spoke orders to his fearlings. Hmm, when he thought about it, even Pitch was never alone. He had helpers like Tooth, North and Bunny. Sandy- well, he was entertained by the animals he made with his dreamsand.

Why was he still thinking about that little man? He's dead and wouldn't be coming back. There was no way he could with the injury he gained.

He felt something nudge his shoulder, letting out a huff. Jack turned and locked eyes with black sand and white pupilless eyes. A black stallion nudged his shoulder once more. Getting the message, the boy stroked the horse's nose with the palm of his hand. It leaned in to the touch.

Strangely, he found himself smiling. How could something so horrifying- a nightmare- be so beautiful and extravagant? The indentations in its outer structure, the way it galloped in the wind like North's reindeer. It seemed so innocent, but Jack knew that as soon as his eyes were closed, their true nature would be shown. There was a reason Pitch Black, the king of nightmares, could control them. They spread sorrow, pain and fear in the form of nightmares. Their beauty masked their dark nature to the unknowing, but Jack wasn't one of the oblivious. He knew he could never trust them.

He pulled his hand away and turned away from the dark creature, going to Pitch whose been ordering his nightmares to move barrels with a clear liquid pouring out of them.

"Black, what are you doing?" he questioned once he stepped beside his partner.

Not turning his head, he replied monotonously, "We can't leave him a place to return to."

The scent hit him like a wave, giving off an acidic scent, burning his nose. Dozens upon dozens of barrels were set up all around the warren, all with their contents poured out, leaving a vile smell to make the winter boy ill.

He knew what it was, but he did nothing to stop it.

**./../\..\.**

A lump in his throat refused to leave and with the stinging around his eyes. Jack was really going to kill him, just like that? No remorse? What would have happened if he didn't call his warriors to distract them? Would his blood have been spilt on the grounds of his warren?

Did Jack Frost really did hate him?

He let out gasp of breath as he sped through his tunnels in order to escape, abandoning his beloved warren, but he knew that he had no chance against Pitch let alone Jack. The fate of his home was in their hands and he could do nothing.

He needed to see if he was being followed, so he made his way back to the surface only a mile or so away from the warren and looked out towards it. That's when he saw the glow, the orange glow that lit up the night sky. There was no doubt that it was coming from his warren. He stared watching the flames lick the horizon, mocking him. Tears welled in his eyes as he turned, hopping into his tunnel once more, leaving his warren to burn to ash.

His joints ached as he raced north for his friend's workshop.

**./../\..\.**

North'd finally gotten Tooth to relax and sit by the fire place near his private office though she still puffed her feathers, where Jack had first arrived at the Pole in a red sack. Funny how it was a reminder of the person, but they continued to enjoy it. The big man walked over to the velvet where the colorful hummingbird girl sat curled in the chair with her eyes closed and placed a blanket over her.

Her eyes momentarily fluttered open. Smiling, she thanked him just as the front door slammed open, letting in a gust of crisp air to bring a chill up the hummingbird's spine.

She heard him before she saw him, that Australian accent that usually held so much pride was weak and shaky, but that didn't stop her blood from boiling. Did he have a death wish?

Jumping out of her seat by the fire wings beating a mile a minute towards him, she stopped suddenly seeing his face. Agony and sorrow was all she saw in his emerald eyes. "Bunny?" she asked, her voice cracking.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he ran to her, wrapping his arms around the slim girl. "Tooth," he gasped, his heart racing from traveling so fast to the Pole. "Oh, Tooth, the warren. M-my warren. It- It's..." The words hitched in his throat.

North, who'd been watching from beside the fireplace, came over and helped lead the shakened Pooka to Tooth's chair. As they grabbed their own chairs to sit on, Bunny blankly stared at the blazing fire, all emotion gone. It seemed that it only took him seconds to pushed down his pain.

"Bunny," the fairy whispered but getting no reaction from the rabbit. "What's going on? What happened?"

It was silent for several moments before the Pooka was able to trust his voice. "The warren- there was a cloud, a cloud of shadows, of fearlings. Pitch was there... and so was Jack."

The others' eyes widened immensely, but said nothing for the rabbit to continue.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "There wasn't anytime ta react. They attacked and took out my warrior eggs. I-I... I barely managed ta escape. When I looked back," he put his head in his hands, unable to stare at the flames anymore, "Everythin' was on fire."

"Fi-...Fire?"

He nodded, looking at the mocking fire in front of him. "They burned all the fields, the trees, the plants, everything. My warrior eggs are all gone... There's nothing left, I know it."

Images of the Tooth Palace filled his mind, the destruction that came with Pitch's attack. All it took was the children's belief in the Tooth Fairy to make it crumble like it was, slowly ebbing away to soon be nothing. It was the same thing as her situation, both their homes gone and jobs lost. Soon, when they both lost all their believers, they'd fade away together.

She whispered his name softly as she stepped behind his red velvet chair and wrapped an arm around him. "I'm sorry."

He didn't move. "What for? Ya couldn't do anythin' about the fire-"

"No. I'm sorry for being so hard on you. I should have known you were hurting to and not have treated you so harshly."

"Tooth," he turned his head to look into her violet eyes, smiling. "Don't be sorry, sheila. I ain't goin' down without a fight, none of us are." He turned to North. "By the way, can I get a room for the time bein'?"

Smile of his made it onto the old man's face. " 'course, friend. I have room already set for you when you visit. We need to think of plan. Pitch grows stronger everyday."

"Then we have no time to lose." Bunny stood from his chair. "We need ta find a way ta get to Jack. When we were at the warren, Pitch gave 'im a knife to kill me with-"

"Wait, what!?" the hummingbird hybrid practically screamed in his already sensitive ears. "You didn't tell us Jack was going to kill you!"

"'Cause he stopped himself. I saw it in his eyes. He wouldn't kill me even if Pitch threatened 'im. I don't think... I don't think he has turned. I don't think he's just another one of Pitch's pawns."

"So if that's the case, then maybe we can get Jack to see the light!"

He smiled at her childish problem solving, a sad smile. "Sure, Tooth."

******./../\..\.**

The flames grew more fierce as time past, but soon there'd be nothing else to burn. The fields, once covered in every shade of green, were black with white decorating it from fallen ashes of the flowers and trees and the occasional orange glow. The once colorful flowers, the ones that took every shape and size and hue, were no more.

He watched as the trees' bark turned darker and darker. The leaves and flower buds too became darker, fire catching them.

All of it was dying, everything. He stepped on the ash covered grass, black and grey coating his pale bare feet. Ash fell in his hair like his snow would. Funny, an oxymoron. It was strange to think how fire and ice could be used to compare each other, that ash can even fall like snow he created.

The surface had no place to hide anymore. It was so... so bare, so empty. It was like all the life had been drained from the land. The winter boy should've been used to the bareness. That's what his element did, rid life. It killed off the flowers and tore off leaves from the branches. The animals hid in hibernation for him to leave.

"Something the matter, Jack?"

The boy's thoughts were pulled away. He turned, looking into yellow cat eyes that he has hated and befriended but still confused about the beholder of those eyes.

"Nothing," he muttered.

"Ah, yet that doesn't explain the frown," Pitch said dryly. "Tell me, are you regretting your decision?"

"Egh, well no. It's just that..." He looked out to the black trees that hardly were able to stand, the snowy ashes that made a blanket on the dead grass. "I was wondering, if doing all this is the right thing. I mean, did we really have to kill all the life here?"

"Oh, Jack," he clasped his hands behind him, "There's so much you must learn. Soon you will realize that a person has a reason to doing everything they do."

The boy nodded reluctantly. "So, what next?"

"Easy. Now that Toothiana and Aster along with Sandman are no longer doing their jobs, only North is holding up the children's belief, but that can only last for so long. Jack, prepare to leave."

The teenager sighed, but obliged Pitch's wishes, walking back where the fearlings stood restless.

Once Jack was out of ear shot, the dark man mumbled, "Soon, soon you'll realize _never_ to question me."

**************./../\..\.**

**Quote meanings: Yes, it does involve fire, but it's supposed to represent the situation Jack is in. He feels like this is his only path, that he has no choice other to do 'what must be done to help the other spirits.' **

**I was listening to Linkin Park while writing this. I never realized how much I love their songs. New Divide has one line that I've always loved. "There was nowhere to hide, the ashes fell like snow." Most inspiring line ever.**

**Chapter 6 will be posted on June 2. Finals are making things a bit difficult, so if I for some reason don't post, you know why.**

**REVIEW ... Please? *Super adorable puppy-dog eyes* **


	6. Chapter 6

**READ: My laptop needs a new battery, so it only works when it's on AC power. Because of this, writing chapters has become difficult and means that I'm behind schedule on everything! Now you know why I have such long breaks between chapters. BUT my new battery should get here by June 6th!**

**Shout-outs to you lovely people:**

**AlexJohnD: Linkin Park has some amazing songs! Well, let's see if your guess is right in a few chapters! :)**

**Lovepuppy316: No spoiling! Actually, I don't know how all the Pooka's died. I still haven't read the books :P **

**Darkblade 2.0: YEAH! THANK YOU! Bah, I don't even know what to think about him. He's just that character that I love and hate, so I make him the bad guy but make him lose everything. Eh, I don't know.**

**And look here, chapter 6:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

"It's strange being here, not being in the palace... Do you miss your home, too, Aster?"

A gasp escaped his lips, his eyes tight shut. It was a sensitive subject, a wound that kept getting salt poured into it every time the words "home" or "warren" were mentioned. Not trusting his voice, he nodded.

He wasn't really listening to Tooth. She always chattered nonstop like some school girl, no real point to what she says. And when she does say something deep and emotional, she quickly changes to a new subject before anyone can really speak to her what they want to say. Honestly, as soon as he'd given her a nod, she was talking about getting earrings for her fairies after the Pitch thing was all over, then something about cookies, and something else about a movie all the kids have been freaking out to watch. He didn't know.

Even though they were sitting by the fireplace still, he was so cold! No Pooka should have to endure the cold of the North Pole. It just wasn't right!

As if reading his mind, a hot mug of cocoa was thrust into his hands. Looking for the source, Bunny's emerald eyes met deep blue. They man smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"You alright, North?"

The white bearded man sighed deeply. "The lights," he mumbled. "Every time I look at globe, there's less and less lights."

He nodded. He himself had a difficult time passing by the globe. It mocked him of his failures. It was strange, having to be pushed out of his home, seeking refuge at North's, waiting to figure out how to fix everything. An even stranger thing to think is that they are only half the team they used to be. Tooth and he had lost so much power. He could honestly feel it ebbing away with every passing moment. And then Sandy... Oh, Sandy- he's gone. Really, only North was holding them together.

He lost his train of thought as the glow of fire flickered. The flames snuffed out suddenly, the light fading and a chill filling the room. Then the rest of the lights began to flicker, even the globe.

The globe.

The three guardians turned, watching the globe as the lights puffed out. All eyes looked around as a deep laughter filled the room, and then came the shadows. They came in a wave, swirling and twirling until there stood the nightmare king on top of the dying globe.

He laughed so care freely. "Oh, look, you're all here to watch as each-" he stomped on one of the lights, distinguishing it "-and every light-" he stomped on another-

"Pitch! Stop it!" Tooth cried, trying to fly up to him, but her arm was caught by the fur covered rabbit beside her. Every light that went out meant a lost believer. Not only did that mean the guardians didn't protect childhood, but they'd soon fade when there were no more. Losing even one wasn't an option.

This only made him laugh more. "How pathetic. I can't believe Jack ever thought of joining you! Which reminds me, he's here to watch the show with us!"

And with that, a gust of wind, crisp from cold, entered the room carrying a certain white-haired boy, and he touched down on the dying globe along with Pitch, stepping and extinguishing another light with his touch.

Tooth felt her wings falter, almost dropping her. No, she was losing too many believers. This wasn't good. If she lost too many of her believers, she'd disappear. That was the catch to being a guardian. Once you became one, you relied on children's belief for power and even life.

Her violet and confused eyes stared at his white frost hair, his icy blue eyes, his wooden staff. It was Jack, but his eyes no longer shined bright. His hair was tangled, his skin seemed a bit grey thanks to the little sleep he'd gotten, especially with the fearlings waiting to haunt his dreams.

But it was him. It really was him.

"Ah, Jack," the man pulled him into a hug, causing the winter spirit to almost fall over, "You're the reason this is all possible!"

Jack...

**./../\..\.**

Dear Moon, it was weird for him to stand there with them all watching him. He saw the shock and worry in Tooth's eyes along with the fear in North's. But then there was Bunny. Neither of them looked as horrified as he did to see Jack show up. His eyes wide, pain visible on his face, his fist clenched tight, his bones pleading him to stop.

The winter boy couldn't look him in the eye, the look he gave made his stomach burn and turn with guilt. He still felt their eyes penetrating his skull.

_Just breathe,_ he told himself. _This is what you wanted. _And with that, the boy fixed his gaze on them once more, fire burning in his cold eyes. His mind flew back to that Easter day, only a short time ago. He remembered vividly of the disappointment, the fury and shock of seeing him holding his memories hidden in a tooth canister.

They didn't stop to think that Pitch lured him in. They didn't stop to think about how desperate Jack was to grasp what he once was, to know if he once belonged, to know if he had a family that loved him. They didn't know that Jack was at his limit, that dealing with anymore more people walking through him would soon drive him over the edge. They never knew the ache that came with every unbeliever stepping through them like they were nothing. Those guardians never felt like a shell as if they were hollow. They never learnt of how the mind goes blank except for the pain when they're being stepped through. They never felt their heart stop... They'd never known how empty he felt.

_Selfish, _a voice cried inside his mind.

But then he found them, and they let him in. Finally, people who couldn't walk through him, people who could touch him, could see him, could hear him. For once in his long life of three hundred god forsaken years, he felt as if this was what a family is like, wanting to protect them, and they in return... But, no. They would never protect him, only hurt him, only add more salt to his wounds.

_Selfish._

The winter boy put on his infamous crooked grin, pushing down his other emotions. They didn't deserve to see anything from him except that he was glad he chose to follow Pitch instead of playing a tool for them.

Grinning, he said, "And proud of it."

"Jack," the girl whispered.

"Guardians," Pitch announced "Watch as each-" another light stomped on "-and every-" and out another "-light goes..." Just one left. "Out!" The man couldn't hold in his enjoyment and laughed wickedly._  
_

Fear wrapped around the three's hearts. No, they couldn't lose their believers. They were their lifeline. If they were all lost...

So, how come they still existed.

The dark man, whom had been laughing maniacly, stopped, opening his eyes and realizing the guardians had not faded or at least been scared of disappearing. Moving his foot, he found there a glow refusing to be squashed or snuffed out. He stomped on it again, but nothing. _Dammit._

The guardians saw it, too, their eyes widening ever more. A child charged that light, its belief. There was a chance, maybe they could stop this.

Frowning, Pitch Black turned to his ally. "Jack, take care of that kid. I'll deal with these pests."

The frost boy nodded, calling the wind.

"Jack, don't!"

The boy stopped in mid-jump and looked at the source: Bunny.

"Don't ya realize what Pitch is planning? He's just using ya to do his dirty work so he can be on top. Once he's finish, he'll throw ya aside."

He squinted his eyes. "You mean like what you did to me?" He shook his head. "You're just trying to save your ass right now." He changed his gaze to the open window ahead of him. "Too bad for you." And with that, the wind embraced him, carrying him through the window as their shouts faded in the storm outside the factory and south to a little town named Burgess.

"Now," Pitch started, turning the guardians attention back to him as sand rushed to his palm, "Why not just get this over with now?"

Drawing his swords, North shouted, "Even with one believer, you are going to lose!"

The man chuckled, his scythe forming in his hands. "Your optimistic personality only makes you a fool."

"Bunny, now!"

Just like that, explosions were set off all over the room, colored smoke blinding the dark man's vision.

"Dammit!" he shouted in frustration.

Hidden within the smoke, a hand grabbed the Pooka and hummingbird hybrid and carried them deeper into the workshop which became colder and colder. The rabbit smelt them before the smoke cleared, but didn't refuse being shoved into a sleigh. The reigns were whipped and the suddenly were moving and soon lifted higher and higher, gaining altitude. And with that, they were gone.

**./../\..\.**

He couldn't sleep for something was on his mind. He felt it pulling at his thoughts, trying to twist them to a new image, but that wasn't what the boy wanted. The boy sat up in his bed, brushing his fingers through his brown, bedraggled hair.

Just the other day, his friends and him had a bit of an Easter disaster. The Easter egg hunt that they did every year, where the Easter Bunny leaves colorful eggs in the grass and bushes for children to find, had no eggs. Every was saying that the Easter Bunny wasn't real, that it was all a lie. They also said if the that was true, then the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, and the Sandman were all fake, too. They said that he didn't really meet them, that he was only dreaming.

No matter what they said, he didn't want to believe it. They just had to be real. How did the presents get under his Christmas tree if Santa Clause didn't exist? How did he find quarters under his pillow where a tooth once sat if not for the Tooth Fairy? How did he get such pleasant dreams if not for the Sandman?

Of course, they were real. They had to be, and that's why the Easter Bunny had to exist, too... But then why did he feel such doubt in his mind? Why did it fight against his heart as it did?

He unconsciously tightened his grip on his stuffed rabbit.

And an idea came in mind. Looking down at his stuffed animal, so old and worn, he thought of something that most people would probably laugh at.

******./../\..\.**

He had to be quick, Jack knew that. Even with those guardians so weak, they still had tricks up their sleeves, just like Pitch. Snow covered the streets as he came upon the house where the guardians last believing child would be found. That wretched kid was ruining everything for him and Pitch. What a pest.

He'd been through the town so many times causing fun that he knew the layout like the back of his hand. But that's what bothered him, he was in the direction of a certain child's home, one that he'd taken on a sleigh ride once, but the boy only thought about the Tooth Fairy than of him. This child happened to be little Sophie's big brother.

Jamie Bennett.

**************./../\..\.**

_Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author_

_"Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun."_

******************************./../\..\.**

**Wow, this is passing by way quicker than I thought it would. Sheesh. By the way, if i messed up on the dialogue for Pitch taking out the other lights, sorry, I couldn't find a clip of the scene.**

**New chapter on June 6th. See you guys then!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'M OFFICIALLY A BETA READER! PEOPLE COME AND HAVE ME READ YOUR WORKS!... I don't bite, promise.**

**Shout-outs: **

**candle dark: Ugh, I know what you mean. That's why I had to spend a LOT of time on this chapter so it's not like one of those fics. **

**AlexJohnD: Let's just say Jack is a really difficult character to understand. He's extremely unpredictable when you think about it since he was isolated for so long with no one to guide him. There's no telling what he may and may not do which is why it really depends on whoever writes about him to choose how he reacts (Think about it, does he know he shouldn't kill/fight/injure in order to get what he wants?)**

**Darkblade 2.0: But I just spent all my money on a new laptop battery :/ No getting Novelization. Oh, and, um, Hang (It's a drum!).**

**Now, after revising this chapter about... four times, here is part 7:**

**_Believed In, Feared In_**

_"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."_

_-Walt Disney _

He had to do this, he just had to. He had to prove them wrong, that they really did believe. Sitting on his knees on top of his bed and hands clenched into fist, he stared at his stuffed bunny who sat in front him, staring back as well.

Taking a deep breath, he started, "Okay, look. You and I are at what they call a cross road, so here's what's gonna happen."

Jamie, the boy speaking to his _stuffed_ animal, failed to notice the winter spirit that'd came to his window, listening intently to the boy's foolish speech.

The boy on the bed lent forward, staring into the plastic black eyes of the stuffed animal. "If it wasn't a dream and you are real, you have to prove it, like right now." The two stared at one another, but the rabbit never answered.

Jack Frost watched from the window, listening to the boy's desperate attempt, slipping to a crouch against the window.

"I believed in you for a long time, okay? Like, my whole life, in fact." The child grabbed the silent animal and held it closer to him. "So, you kind of owe me now," he quickly blurted. "You don't have to do much, just a little sign so I know."

The spirit outside the window watched the boy and his stuffed rabbit, but nothing happened.

"Anything," the brown-haired boy added, still watching his silent stuffed animal but with a welcoming smile to encourage it. "Anything at all," he practically whispered.

Slowly, as time passed and with no response from the cream colored rabbit, the sparkle in the boy's eyes faded along with his smile. He sighed in defeat with his head held low, the grip on the stuffed rabbit faltering. "I knew it."

And with that, the bunny fell to the bedroom floor with a soft thud, rolling slightly to face the teen outside the window. Even though the belief wasn't towards him, Jack felt it shrinking inside the young boy.

A malicious grin tugged at the edges of his lips. It would only take a short amount of time before the kid completely gave up on the guardians, and he wouldn't even have to lift a finger. Jack Frost, Pitch Black and the other spirits of the world would finally be able to come out of their suppressions from the guardians and finally be believed in, to be adored and looked up to children in their childhoods.

After Jamie forgot about them, the guardians would finally be gone. They'd waist away from this world and never come back. Finally, the world would be purged from them...

_Are they really that bad?_ Jack asked himself. The way he was thinking just moments ago was not like he'd normally think. He wouldn't think about destroying his rivals and how the world would be better without them. The tables had turned for Jack and the guardians, switching places. Jack once was the one who thought he'd fade away completely someday, but now- now the guardians were fading and he'd soon gain all the belief along with Pitch.

But even with the great results that were sure to come that would benefit all of the spirits, Jack couldn't help but feel a nagging in the back of his mind, alerting him that something was wrong.

Unconsciously, the teen winter spirit grasped inside his sweatshirt pocket the gold canister that he had not parted since gaining it yet never opening it. Within that box was his baby teeth from a long time ago, before he stopped aging, before the Moon pulled him out of that lake.

It held so much about him, but did he really want to open it? What if he doesn't like what he sees? Maybe it would only prove his point that the guardians were no good,...

Or maybe that they deserved pity?

He shook it off the uneasy feeling and "What Ifs" as he felt Jamie's belief emptying the completely. Now was Jack's chance to refill the boy's belief with something new and better.

**./../\..\.**

Something dragged his eyes towards the frost-covered window with a line growing bigger, twisting and out-lining...

Wait, something was drawing on the glass window?

His hit the ground, the child stumbling slightly for his muddy brown eyes never left the window. He watched, creeping closer until an animal was visible on the window: a wolf.

And then, before he could even try to comprehend of how the the wolf was even drawn on his window, it pulled away from the window, like a sticker pulled off a piece of paper, except it had dimensions. The first thing that came to mind was of one of those movies where the monster comes out of the TV screen as the wolf pounced and started running around in the air!

When he thought that the animal couldn't become anymore magnificent, it burst into millions of snowflakes, and those flakes fell all around the room, sprinkling every thing white before melting.

"Snow?"

A flake fell on the tip of his nose. Its blue magic twinkled in his eyes, and the boy felt the hole in his heart healing. He even laughed, his smile reaching his eyes like real smiles do.

Then something urged its way to the front of Jamie's brain. What was that saying his mother told him just the other day?

_Jack Frost nipping at your nose._

"Jack Frost?"

**./../\..\.**

he world around Jack began to quiver and dull, his focus only on his hearing. His ears weren't deceiving him. His years of solitude wasn't making him delusive. The kid, little Jamie Bennett, had said his name. For the first time, a child had called his name with belief behind it.

"Jack Frost."

His heart skipped a beat. "He said it again," he gasped. Even though it was his plan from the beginning to gain Jamie's belief, Jack couldn't help but be surprised that it worked. For so many years, three hundred very long years, the teen spirit had been trying to get people like Jamie to see him, to know his name. And and by the simple act he'd done, his name was finally coming from someone else's mouth.

The boy turned admiring the falling snow until his eyes landed on the winter spirit and, for once in Jack's existence, not seeing through him.

He gasped with a bit of jittered laughter. Jack stared into the eyes of the boy. "Y-you said my name," he exclaimed with his voice on the verge of cracking, smiling at the boy.

"You can you hear me, right?" he whispered.

The boy in awe nodded slightly.

"Can-can you see me?" he asked in disbelief as he moved closer. This has only been his dream since they day the Moon had pulled him out of that lake. Ever since that day, he'd been unconsciously shunned by the rest of the world, and he'd been left to believe that no one would ever know who Jack Frost was.

But as he watched, the boy nodded again.

A half gasp half laugh escaped him. It really _was_ happening. "He- He sees me." He felt the tears brimming in his eyes, but they were filled with joy, he knew. He smiled more, knowing that this couldn't be a nightmare. This was real, and no one could take that away. "He sees me!"

"I knew it, you aren't a myth," Jamie said dryly. "That means that the Easter Bunny is real, too, right? And the Tooth Fairy? And Santa Claus and Sandman? They are real, aren't they?"

Just as his dreams felt fulfilled, he remembered why he was there, that he was to make this child forget the guardians. His smile faltered. Sighing deeply, he prepared to say the most simplest and most difficult to understand word.

"No."

And with that, the winter spirit watched the smile slip from the other boy's face as a look of sadness filled it once more. But as quick as it came, the boy shook his head. "No, that can't be true."

"Look-"

"No" he interrupted. "How can you be real then? Who would bring presents and dreams if not them?"

"Jamie-"

"You're wrong. I don't believe you."

"Trust me," Jack told the kid as he paced around the room. He wasn't expecting Jamie to fight it like he was. "They're nothing but trouble."

"So they are real," Jamie stated dryly.

"Yes, they're real, but they're not what you think. You don't know the things they've done just so they can have you believing them. The other spirits like me that they've pushed down- they're like bullies on the playground. And when you don't do what they want, they throw you away."

"No, that can't be true. You're just angry. They can't be like that," the young boy protested, his earlier bravery dissipating.

"Oh really? So then why is it that whenever I meet Easter Bunny and Santa Clause that they always ignored me or scolded me for something, never to just talk to me. Why did they only acknowledge me as a person when they needed me to help them and when I screwed up, they threw me out? Face it, kid, they're not the people you hear of in fairy tales. You only know what they want you to-"

But before Jack could say anything else, between a blink, a wall of gold stood in front of him, shocking to a point of falling on his back.

"What the hell?" he scoffed as he stood up and backed away from it. It glowed in the dark room too bright for Jack's eyes. Gold split into streams around him but not touching but only growing around him peacefully.

He'd seen these before... _Could it be true?_ he thought as he stretched his arm out. At his touch, sand protruded from the main stream, morphing into gold dolphins that swam around the room together in play.

"Sandy?" the teen whispered. _No,_ he told himself,_ he's dead. You saw him die. Stop living on fake hope._But from the wall of sand, a little gold man stepped out, smiling sadly at the teen."Sandy?" he repeated, reaching out to him but stopping. The guardians were his enemy. "How are you alive?"

The gold man pointed up where a crescent moon formed from sand floated.

"The Moon brought you back alive?"

He shook his head. In intricate gold cursive letters above his head, it said, "_No brought back, saved. Pitch didn't kill, but he turned me into just another one of his pawns. I'm made of sand, so he used me to create fear. You could say I was corrupted or 'turned.' But the Man in the Moon gave me a second chance, just like I will give you."_

Jack stared at the shorter man.

"_Jack, we can be allies, start over, and the past can be put behind us."_

"You don't know what I've done."

He smiled apologetically at the spirit once more. _"I may not know everything, but that's why you can have a fresh start. Come back to us, Jack."_

The teen backed up. "You want me to forget about what you've all done?" his voice raised. "What about all the things you've done to the other spirits? What about how you guardians are power hungry? You're telling me to let myself be used again for your own personal gain again and be thrown aside once you're done?"

_"Pitch has been lying to you. We are not against the other spirits. It's because of their selfishness that they aren't seen. We only live to protect the children and their childhood, and in return, they believe in us. We don't just see them as banks filled with cash. It's only when you go out of your way to help others that they will be seen such as you now being seen."_

Jack shook his head. "But I wasn't-"

_"You were and you did," the small man interrupted as he continued to write with his magical gold sand. "You were making Jamie see you to help other spirits. That was your motive, not for your own gain. Without even knowing it, you acted as a guardian."_ The Sandman smiled continuously which was getting on the teen's nerves. How can he be so calm and collective in all this? All Jack wanted to do was scream and tell him how wrong he was, but how could he when the words spoken seemed to hold so much?

_"You're a good person, Jack. __We can fix our mistakes only if we try again, that means using our second chance."_

**./../\..\.**

**READ THIS: I need to hear your opinion. So I've been trying to plot out a Rise of the Brave Tangle Dragons fic, and it would probably be the length of Sickness... But I've been wondering if I should wait to write/post it until after How To Train Your Dragon 2 comes out. I mean, I'm sure there'll be a lot of commercials with the "New Hiccup" and will contradict what I might write/do and it would all just be weird. So, what should I do?**

**SON OF SOBEK COME OUT ON THE 18TH! Omg my friend and I were practically screaming during lunch about how much we can't wait for it and House of Hades! Like seriously, I'm dying. Why, Rick? Why make us wait!? And if you kill Nico or Leo, you're going to lose your hands! No killing my men!**

**New chapter on... the 11th? I have finals that day, but I'll try to squeeze in a chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Shout-outs:**

**Night-fury1: one wolf represents loneliness, the one who howls beneath the moon with no pack. That's my inspiration :)**

**ObsidianLove: Thank you so much! I spent a LOT of time trying to make everything fit. As for the ROTBTD, it would also be long time till I get it posted and have chapter posted. Plus, the fic would be 20+ chapters.**

**lovepuppy316: I'm starting to wonder who hates Bunny more. You or me? **

**RoseZemlya'sfavoritefan: Agreed. I think it would be best too to wait to post it. I'll probably work on it this summer, but it won't be posted until I really know what HTTYD2 is about. Oh, I got mine as an e-book from Amazon (lol I still need to read them). They're pretty expensive. :/**

**Darkblade 2.0: Wow, you said 8 words that totally made my day. Thank you amazing person! Oh, and I think I'll be doing what you said to do :)**

**I did a lot of revising, but I think I got it figured out. And here is chapter 8:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

What was going on? All Jamie saw was the wall of gold pop out of nowhere, separating him and Jack Frost. After a bit of questioning, he stepped off his bed onto the cool wood, cautiously making his way towards the wall of luminous gold.

Why did it glow? Was it even solid? It looked like it was made of grain or something. Cautiously, he lifted his hand and barely touched if before streams broke out and created fish and dinosaurs swimming and walking in mid-air.

He couldn't believe his eyes. Sand, moving around the room like some type of dream... Dream?

Sandman? Was he here? Jamie remembered his "dream" when Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman all came into his room, and his dog attacked the Easter Bunny. Before Jamie could do anything that night, he was flung off his bed and into the Sandman's arms and knocked out. It really wasn't a dream. Sandman was here again, and his friends were wrong about them not being real!

"Sandman?" he called from his side of the gold sand wall.

But then something hit him, a thought. If Sandman was real, why did Jack Frost seem to not like him? Was it all true that they had used Jack Frost, or was that a lie? Jack Frost was said to be a trickster, or at least that's what the myths said about him.

But then why would he be so destined to make Jamie not believe in them?

Thanks to the boy's swirling mind, he didn't realize the shadow that had managed to slip into his room undetected by the Sandman or Jack Frost on the opposite side of the gold wall.

**./../\..\.**

He was not enjoying the ride. North would say, "Everyone loves the sleigh." If that's the case, then why was he digging his nails into the wood, holding on for dear life? Pooka were _not_ meant to fly.

But something else was bothering him besides the stomach ache of the bouncy and thin-aired ride. Something he felt through out his body, from the tips of his ears to his rabbit feet. It was like being underwater where there was pressure at all sides on him.

Closing his emerald eyes, he inhaled deeply to try to clear his mind. It was strange that he felt compressed when the air here was thinner, but maybe that came with the air-sickness.

Why was he even thinking about that? He should be thinking out a plan for when he confronts Jack again. Was he to fight Jack or try to knocking some sense into the kid's head. Is he beyond reason, though? So far Jack had switched sides, attacked the Warren, tried to kill him, and burned down his home. What next? Actually succeed in killing him by taking away his last believe-

He doubled over in the seat of the sleigh, a sharp pain knocking out his breath. Then it clenched his heart. His eyes stung and his hearing was nothing more than white noise. He didn't hear Tooth calling for him to answer beside them, only the sharp pain his chest. Neither did he realize that his feet no longer touched the bottom of the sleigh though he was still sitting in one of the seats. And with that, he as well didn't notice the change in size of the rest of the world around him.

No, the world wasn't growing, but he was shrinking, being compressed into nothing more than a small grey rabbit.

**./../\..\.**

Jack didn't want to listen to the man's words, but they held so much truth, honesty. They weren't filled with nothing as Bunny's had, but filled with real concern for more than himself. It was completely selfless.

_Don't let him deceive you._

The teen shook his head, trying to process everything that was happening and the conflict within him. There were so many things Jack wanted to tell the Sandman, how he was afraid that the little gold man was really gone forever, that only if he was a little bit faster, none of this would have happened. If Jack had stopped that arrow, Easter might have not ended in disaster. If Sandy had not been shot,... Would Jack still be on the opposing team?

Here they stood, one against the other, but that little man was asking him as a friend, not an enemy to aid him once more.

What did Jack have against the little Sandman? Nothing. The Sandman had done nothing to him like Bunny or North or Tooth. He was always quiet but kind, neutral. Never had he scolded Jack for the things he'd done wrong, neither had he really socialized with him. But that was just it, he was not a friend or foe. And if that was the case, why did Jack feel so conflicted to even stand in the presence of the small guardian?

_Jack._

The said boy's attention was pulled not to the Sandman or the boy on the other side of the gold wall, but to the little girl's voice.

_Jack?_ it called again questionably.

He listened to that voice as it beckoned him. It sounded so familiar, so childlike and innocent, as if it had gone through the world without knowing fear or growing up. Where had he heard it before? He looked down at his sweatshirt pocket. Could it be... Is that voice coming from his tooth box?

Carefully and cautiously, he ignored the Sandman in front of him and reached into his pocket. The emanating from the canister caught him by surprise as his fingers brushed against it.

Sandy saw the boy's confused and awed face though he could not hear the winter spirit's name being called, but before he could question it, he heard the scream.

**./../\..\.**

He stood on his bed, his back hitting the backboard of the bed frame as the black sand stallion crept closer, stomping its hooves on the wood floors. Once it crept close enough, it stepped onto the edge of the bed. The couldn't move. His feet refused to move , and brown eyes continued to stare into the pupilless white ones of the stallion's.

It's muzzle sniffed his hair and face, determining if this child was his target. But as it was too busy watching the child, it never had a chance to move before a gold sand whip wrapped around its hind leg and flung it towards an awaiting wooden staff that shattered the dark creature into thousands of grains of sand. It happened so fast, Jamie could barely absorb what happened.

"Jack Frost? Sandman?"

"You alright, kid?" the winter teen asked, concerned.

His breath was labored from the fear that coursed through him. "I-I'm fun, but- what was that?"

The gold man started signing with a smile on his face towards the white-haired boy, and Jack rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. I get it. You think just because I helped the kid that it proves what you've said."

Once more, Sandman made pictures and sculptures with his gold sand, telling Jack Frost a message in the form of charades.

And at the last picture, Jack laughed, "I think you're more naïve than the kids." He shook his head and wiped the smirk off his face. In its place stood a clear and focused face. "I'm not cut out be a guardian. I can't help them like you and the others can." The boy then turned and started towards the window, ignoring what Sandy had to say.

"Wait, Jack Frost."

He stopped in mid stride. It still struck excitement through him to have a human say his name. Jamie, the boy who'd called him, stepped beside him and stared up at him with muddy brown eyes. "Jack Frost, I don't know what's going on, but don't go. Not yet. This can't be a dream, so please don't go."

But Jack shook his head. "There's more going on then you understand, Jamie."

"Then tell me what attacked me."

Again, Jack couldn't help but chuckle. "You are a persistent kid, huh? That thing was a fearling, a nightmare sent by the boogeyman to come and make you stop believing in the Sandman, Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny."

So the others _are_ real. It wasn't a dream like his friends had said. "So wait. Why are you here?"

_Good question,_ Jack thought to himself. Why was he here? Was he here to snuff out his belief or help keep it strong? Was he a friend or foe? A hero or enemy? Dream or nightmare? A guardian or revolutionist? Pitch wasn't bad. He wants a new life for the other spirits like him, right? So was it really bad if they have to use a little bit of fear to bring a better belief? Everyone else only saw it bad because the guardians had been setting the rules.

But was he neither a guardian or revolutionist. Hadn't he always been on the sideline? Who would notice if Jack Frost happened to disappear? No, Jack knew his place, and it wasn't on either of their sides. He knew it from the very beginning, but he wanted to deny it, wanted to be part of something that he didn't belong in.

"I shouldn't be here," Jack voiced aloud before stepping out of the window and falling into the wind's grasp, leaving the boy and guardian.

**./../\..\.**

He felt so stupid, so helpless, and so... fuzzy. More than usual, he noticed. It was like he was a little tyke again, but Bunnymund was centuries old!

It was late by the time they arrived in Burgess. No children would be on the streets to see them. Bunny found himself wondering how children slept without Sandman. Did they just remain in darkness for a few hours with no imagination running around in there little heads, or were they plagued with never-ending nightmares?

He shook of the uneasy feeling that came with it and watched as North handled the reigns the best he could. With the children's belief almost gone, his sleigh was no longer holding the ability to fly, just like Tooth.

"Bunny, Tooth," the big Russian called over is shoulder. "Hold tight. It'll be bumpy ride!" And he wasn't joking. He and tooth grabbed onto the sides, the Pooka using the tiny claws he had to hold on for his life. They jerked and slide and bashed hard on the ground, causing the small rabbit to nearly be thrown off.

_"Everybody loves the sleigh_"the little Pooka mocked in only a whisper. Brushing himself off at the bottom of the sleigh, his ears, stronger than any human's, picked up the voice of someone he knew he'd hear, but never expected to hear it right then.

Jack. "You guys seemed to have a bad ride," the teen said dryly.

The small bunny had to see his face, to see if his ears were tricking him or not, as he climbed up the side of the sleigh and hopped over the side and onto the asphalt. And there, towering over his now small body, was a white-haired boy wearing a blue hoodie and carrying an old wooden shepherd's staff. His breath hitched in his throat. What he to do? Stop the boy like he'd planned to do just moments before on the way there?

But it wasn't Bunny who spoke or Jack, but North as he and Tooth stepped out of the sleigh. "Jack, where is the believing child?" he asked sternly.

"He's with Sandy-" The winter teen had not time to step out of the way before fat old man rammed into him and knocked him to the ground and held his twin swords just inches over his throat. The staff was knocked just a few feet out of Jack's reach.

"How dare you kill a child?!" He screamed. "How dare you!?"

Tooth, who'd been silent, gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth and eyes widening.

That little boy. Only a boy. _How could he fall this far?_ Aster cried inside himself. Did he drive him to this brink of insanity? Was it because of he-

"Sandy's alive."

**./../\..\.**

The small gold man sighed silently while watching the young teen spirit disappear into the night. He knew Jack just needed time to think, time to choose without others trying to convince whose side is better like a competition. Turning back to the young Jamie Bennett. He signed quickly to the boy that it was alright, but he doubted the he actually understood. Oh well, that's what he gets for being mute.

"Mr. Sandman, where did Jack go? Is he coming back?"

Smiling sadly to the younger boy, the short man shrugged his shoulders.

"So, why did that thing attack me anyways, that fearling?"

Once more, he signed to the little boy but was stopped by Jamie's waving hands and "No"s. "Yah, I don't know what you're saying."

At this, Sandy found himself laughing quietly. Starting over again slower, Sandy formed a man who hid underneath a gold sand bed and popped out to scare the gold sand child. "The Boogeyman," Jamie said. "The Boogeyman sent that thing?" Sandy nodded. "Why?" And with that, Sandman conjured a words this time, figuring it would be easier.

_He wants to ruin childhood and rule the world in fear. You are the only believer of the guardians, that's me, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny. He needs to make you stop believing, and then we'd disappear. We don't have any other believers left. Your friends don't believe in us, just you._

"... So, everything is depended on me?" Jamie shook his head and reverted his vision only to his feet. "I'm just a kid. I don't have any super powers like you or Jack Frost."

He felt the Sandman's arm on his shoulder, and he looked up into the gold smiling face. Above the man's head, it read: _"But dreamers are even greater than us."_

**./../\..\.**

_"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach the stars to change the world."_

_-Harriet Tubman_

**./../\..\.**

**I wrote most of this yeterday but didn't realize the posting date was today until later. So, I barely had this finished in time. I have finals today and tomorrow, and them I'm done with school! Then I can write to my heart's content!**

**PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW**

**New chapter hopefully by the 17th? My new laptop battery is defected and it's being returned... So, I'm without a battery again and am not in a good mood. I also have no idea what's going on this week, so if I happen not to post on the right date, sorry! **

**Again, please review! Tell me anything that you think needs fixed, that you think I'm forgetting, should elaborate on. What do you like? Do you wish I spend less time on only Jack, Bunny, and Sandy? Just talk to me, please?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Shout-outs:**

**ObsidianLove: Aww thank you so much. I've always wanted to be writer, so it really means a lot for you to say that. Thank you so much!**

**Darkblade 2.0: Exactly. They jump to conclusions a lot without waiting for explanations. The never have given Jack the benefit of the doubt on Easter, and after everything that'd happened, it's still the same. I totally know what you mean, though. I keep finding it weird that I end up making Sandy a more major character in my fics. Maybe he's sneaking into my dreams? Or maybe it's because of my love for sleep? OH AND I KNOW THAT SONG! IT'S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!**

**AlexJohnD: Ow. Collapsed lung? I can't even imagine something like that... BLEGH. Anyhow, you guessed right. It's an HP Mini. My dad won it in a contest and gave it to me. It's old, but it's all I got until I get a job... Nah, who needs those?**

**Aeona Liz: Aww you're really sweet, and they're not dumb. I think you picked some really good ones. Heck, it'll be used in the next chapter!**

**Anyhow, here's Chapter 9:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." -Robert Frost_

How dare _they?_ He'd arrived to do nothing but... Actually, why did he go and meet them at the sleigh? Why didn't he just keep flying by? He wasn't their friend _or_ enemy now. They wouldn't have noticed him if he'd just kept going without stopping.

But he did stop, and now here he was laying on his now bruised back and trying not to sink into the asphalt to avoid the sharp edges of the swords from piercing his abnormally pale skin. He had no time to react when North pounce on him, and now he was near death by one stab to the heart or a slit of the throat.

_"Sandy's alive,"_ he'd told them, but it surprised him just how quick the others attacked him. They just jumped at him. He had no chance!

Why must they always act so rash? So quickly?

It'd taken the older man, North, several moments to register the words said by Jack. "H-He's alive?" he asked from above the winter spirit, pulling his swords shakily back and away from the boy's throat. "Sandy... Alive?"The man took a step back, dropping the twin swords which fell with an echoing clang in the empty street.

_Arrogant,_ a voice cried from within him. _Arrogant pests that destroy everything. They don't deserve to stand where they stand!_

He pushed himself up with his hands into a sitting position.

It was Easter all over again... The confrontation, the blame, the attacking- everything was the same. Had they really not realize how hurt Jack felt, more than just physically, from that day? And the cycle was repeating. He knew this was why he didn't want to be one of them. They were to hardheaded to even give him a moment to explain himself without jumping at him with conclusions or swords.

Shakily the frost boy moved his weight to his feet and extended to his full length, standing higher than the tiny grey rabbit and even the hummingbird hybrid. Through all of this, his eyes were kept hidden from the guardians behind the grey strands falling into his face.

Tooth, the shock of Sandy passing over, felt her legs moving automatically to the young boy. She hated walking, hated to feel the weight on her feet, the loss of feeling as light as a feather, but it didn't stop her. Like Bunny, it was because of the lost belief that she was weakening, and it wasn't because of Jack that it happened. It was because of Pitch.

But just as she reached out to the boy, his hand was held straight out in front of him, stopping her. "Don't," he said, swallowing his emotion. He didn't want them to hear the plea in his voice. Hopefully it didn't slip. It hurt to keep going through this. Love and hate. Friendship and bonding, then enemies and destruction. It needed to go back to being neutral again.

Unfortunately, Tooth didn't see the pain in his cold lonely eyes.

All he knew was that he didn't want to be around them any longer. They were all trouble, would break him more and more if he remained close to was best that he just continued being invisible and not knowing that there were spirits like him who could see them. He wanted to go back to the time when he thought he was completely alone.

After all, wasn't it better being alone than being thrown through such turmoil like a rag doll? Wouldn't it be better to be nothing than to be hated by all? Turning away from the Tooth Fairy, Jack walked over to his staff, eyes still reverted from the others, and lent down to grab it.

But just as he reached for it, a small grey rabbit covered in tribal tattoos stepped onto the crook of the wooden staff, disallowing the white-haired boy to retrieve it. Sorrowful emerald eyes stared up at icy blue from below his silver bangs. "Jack," it said quietly in a familiar accent.

At first, Jack didn't realize who it was that stood in front of him. But the eyes and fur, the tattoos and accent- the winter spirit would know the person who drove him to the edge, even if he was just a small bunny.

"Bunny." He showed no emotion in saying the name, not even a tweak of the mouth or twitch in his fingers as he pulled the staff up with the small rabbit balance on the crook held horizontally.

"Jack, are you telling the truth? Sandy is alive?" pleaded the tiny Pooka.

Subconsciously, the boy tensed. That's all he cared about? Did he not just see how he was treated by them? Did he not care that he was just tossed to the ground and threatened by a guardian of childhood? Was it not visible that he was upset, or were they ignoring his emotional pain?

_And the kids look up to them!_ something in his mind screamed.

Trying to suppress his anger, he mumbled between clenched teeth, "He's alive."

It didn't set the guardians at ease. It didn't feel right. Though it was a marvelous relief to hear that their friend was safe, they felt uneasy around the younger winter spirit like the air around them was compressed from a dark aura. Should they expect this since Jack's switched sides, or is this something else?

_Pathetic pest,_ Within his mind it continued to cry. Jack's attention wasn't much on the guardians in front of him, more on the pounding voice in his head that felt foreign but comforting. It told him, and he believed it, but there was still something else. Another voice that he knew as his conscience contradicted it over and over again.

They _were_ pathetic. But if that's true, then why are they here and not stopping him, trying to take him out?

_Jack?_

His eyes turned to his front pocket again where a gold canister carrying baby teeth sat. He felt the radiating heat on his stomach through the cloth coming from that tooth box. _Jack?_ it called again.

Unconsciously, the frost boy dropped the wooden staff along with the gray rabbit, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket as the small Pooka complained in a voice to deep for his little body.

"OW! Look, I know ya don't wanna talk ta us, but ya don't have ta go aroun' and drop me! I'm sorry for what I did ta ya. I had no right ta hit ya, and I never will. I ignore your own loss in all of this, and I drew out my anger on ya. I really am sorry, Jack. "

"W-we're sorry too," Tooth added, pointing at herself and North.

"Yah," the old man said quickly. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusion that day! And today," He awkwardly chuckled. "I apparently didn't learn from mistake. I'm sorry."

Jack was listening, but not to them. _Jack, Jack,_ it kept calling in a child's voice until his fingers brushed the gold that touch he felt something change, like the clouds being lifted from his mind, or the darkness pulling away a bit. What Jack didn't know was that the clearness was the lightening of the nightmare sand's influence, allowing him to actually think.

Once it was out of his pocket, Tooth gasped. "You're baby teeth."

The winter spirit, so lost and confused, stared at the gold and jewels that covered the canister. "It was calling me."

"Your... Your tooth box?"

"A little girl. I could hear her voice calling me up until I touched it." His eyes left the small box and looking pleadingly to Tooth. "Why?"

"It's someone you love. Remember how I said I keep the teeth until a person needs them most? Well, if you're hearing it call to you, then you must need it, and the person calling must be from a memory that need." Jack didn't understand. The Tooth Fairy could tell by the look in his eyes. Walking over to him again, she guided his empty hand, the one once holding the wood staff, and held it over the flat side of the canister. "Touch the surface, and you can watch the memory you need."

Jack looked into her violet eyes, his filled with confusion and confliction. Would watching this memory help him ruin him? So far the tooth box has been more like a curse for it was the cause Jack helped the guardians, brought Pitch to his lair, turned the guardians against him, and Bunny... That canister filled with teeth caused all of this. But if he didn't open it, would everything remain the same, and was that a good thing? What if it could fix everything? "What if there's nothing there?" Jack said aloud. "What if there's nothing there that I like? You know, I've been wondering if I really want to know who I was. I mean,... My past doesn't define me, right?"

She wasn't expecting to hear him say that, but she smiled anyways. "Of course. It's your choice to watch it or not."

"Then I choose not to," he said softly after putting the canister into Tooth's hands. "I don't need it."

"Jack Frost, you are full of surprises."

He smiled back at her and turned to grab his staff and then started to walk off away from them.

"Wait, Jack," the Australian rabbit called. "Where are ya going?"

As he continued walking he said over his shoulder, "I'm done with Pitch, but I'm not a guardian either, so I'm taking my leave."

"But Jack," the Russian pleaded. "You are guardian! Manny said so!"

"I'm no guardian."

"So, why did you help Jamie?" Bunny asked which stopped the boy in his tracks. "You know you are a guardian. You want to help kids like Jamie Bennett. You've always been a protector. You've always filled these kids' days with snow days and fun like no one else could. You _are_ a guardian."

"Lies," someone else responded, their voice deep and dark. "Jack Frost isn't one of you. He proved that just by joining me!" Pitch screamed as he stood above them on a cloud about a third of the size of the entire town made of pure nightmare sand. "C'mon, Jack, you and I are partners. Let's show them who's in charge!"

All of them stared up at the nightmare king, but none of them scowled as much as Jack did. "I want nothing to do with you."

"Oh, but Jack, what about how you wanted to help the other spirits? How are you supposed to help them if you're working with the guardians?"

"I'm not on anyone's side, and I know how to help them, but the guardians aren't the reason they aren't seen. It's because they've been holding themselves back, not the guardians." Moving into a fighting stance, he added, "I won't let you hurt them or the kids."

Pitch made a _tsk_ sound, nodding his pointer finger side to side. "Sweet little Jackie. I didn't expect you to betray me so quickly, but no matter. Just have to keep you out of this fight." Twisting his hand, Pitch controlled the dark nightmare sand that was still in the boy's mind and manipulated it, and Jack could feel it. He felt it compressing around his mind, darkening his vision and making his body feel heavy. _Don't fall asleep,_ he shouted at himself, but it was no use. His knees gave beneath him and he found the cement below him and the blurring world sideways.

_You're mine,_ he heard that voice say again before his conscious left the world.

**./../\..\.**

The three guardians had watched as Jack Frost, their once friend, once enemy, fell with no warning. When Tooth called out to him and rushed to his side, he didn't answer. When she shook his shoulders violently, he didn't react. Bunny, who hadn't moved from his spot, stared in horror as his mind wandered to the worst case possible: Jack being dead.

"Pitch, what did you do?!" North roared, no longer holding his anger back.

Tooth turned him over and onto his back and put her head to his chest, and when she heard the constant pounding of his heart, a tear of relief and fear slipped from her eye. He wasn't dead. It was like how Sandy could put others into dreams, but it was a nightmare.

The dark man stood above them laughing. "No worries, guardians. He's not dead, just dreaming of it."

"Release 'em!" the little Pooka shouted, "Or I oughta-"

"You'll do what, pesky rabbit?" he chuckled. "You're in no position to threaten me. Besides," he snapped his fingers, "I have an army." And with that, the sand started to split off on its own, conjuring black stallions with white pupilless eyes. All of them galloped through the air around the three guardians and frost boy, the three surrounding the sleeping teen.

"Bunny," North said quietly, "When they attack, go find Sandy."

"But-" he started to protest but was cut of by the older man.

"You can slip past them." When the fearlings ran towards them, he shouted "Go!"

Bunny reluctantly hopped on all fours into the street and down an alley, shame filling him. _You can't fight anymore,_ he thought to himself. He had to get turned back to normal for Jack and the children. He had to protect them with everything he had. He promised he would protect Jack even if it'd cost him his life.

**./../\..\.**

The pounding fist on his window awoke him in the dead of night. _What now?_ Monty thought to himself as he crawled out of the warm covers on his bed and put his feet on the cold wooden floor. Because of his tiredness, he didn't even notice how strange it was that Jamie was knocking on a second floor window. But when Monty walked over to the window, he nearly screamed not because of Jamie, but because he was floating.

No, it had to be a trick of his eyes. Running back over to his bed, he grabbed his glasses off the side table and then sent again over to the window and slid it open. It was really happening. Jamie was really floating.

"How are doing that!?" Monty cried a little too loudly.

"SHH! You're parents'll hear you. And what do mean?" Jamie asked innocently with a devilish smirk.

"That. You're floating."

The brown-haired boy laughed and started to float away from the window. "Sandman is holding me up!"

"Sandman?" Monty repeated curiously. The myth? The guy who supposedly gave you sweet dreams-

And then he saw it, the gold cloud that Jamie stood on and the small gold man beside him. The Sandman must have noticed how Monty now saw him and waved, which Monty hesitantly waved back.

"Come outside and meet me on the street. We gotta help the guardians!" Jamie exclaimed as he and Sandman floated over to a different house to wake another friend of his. Monty found himself smiling.

They really weren't myths after all. Sandman was real, so the others were real, too. Jamie was right all along. He grabbed his green coat and slippers then quickly and silently went down the staircase and out the front door without another thought.

**./../\..\.**

**BAH the quote! I love Robert Frost! :D:D:D**

**Well, school is finally out and I did good on finals... except this one blasted teacher gave me a B when I have a 89%. Why can't I just have an A please? If it was, I'd have straight As and get paid for my grades! But no, my teacher sucks :/ **

**ANYHOW, I had a really hard time with this chapter, but I now have more spare time to work on this and will hopefully be able to work on my ROTBTD fic and plan it out more. I just realized that this fic will only be a few more chapters and it will be over! D: **

**New chapter on: June 22nd. Please review, or I die!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Posting a day early!**

**Shout-outs:**

**AlexJohnD: Hey, at least I do volunteer work. I just don't get paid, but I do throw my weight around. :) So anything above 80% is an A? Hmm... My grading is 90+% is A, 80-89% is B, 70-79% is C, and everything below is normally all considered Fs. Hardly any teacher actually uses D since it's still not a passing grade. Going back on the opening toothbox thing: The only reason he opened it was because of Baby Tooth in the movie. If she hadn't had pulled it out of his pocket and told him to open it, he wouldn't have. In this fic, he doesn't really trust the guardians and sees the tooth box as the cause of everything, so why would he want to open it when it's done so much destruction? **

**ObsidianLove: Yes! Another Robert Frost lover! I'm glad you think Pitch isn't OOC, though I think he is :P I mean, in the movie he's really playful, and seductive, kind of like that 'hot villain' except that Pitch is ugly. haha. Then again, his voice! Jude Law can make anyone sexy! (Please ignore my fangirling...)**

**Canada: Nice username :) Jack is sort in a confusing spot of what side he's on. He doesn't want to be a guardian, but he does want to protect the kids, so I guess he's half way between neutral and good guy.**

**Darkblade 2.0: hobo bindle :) lol. Oh please don't get me started on politics. They make me all moody and want to punch someone, never a good thing. I see what you mean about him seeing his memories, but read what I wrote to AlexJohnD, and you'll see why I did what I did. Btw you're quote is being saved for the last chapter :)**

**Lovepuppy316: I agree. I know their jumping to conclusion thing happened again, but you also can't blame them. Look at things from their view. Jack _did_ see Pitch. He joined Pitch. He attacked Bunny, burned down his home, and it overlooked the fact that they do jump to conclusions too much. How can you not expect the worst? **

**Chapter 10 is here!:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." _

_-Anne Lamott_

_You'll do what,_ Pitch had said, and what could he do?

He felt so stupid in that form like he was nothing but a nuisance to everyone else. He couldn't help North against the fearlings, or help Tooth. Heck, he couldn't even try to get Jack out of the street and somewhere safe for he was too small.

He couldn't do anything but run away like North had him do.

_Don't think that way,_ he ordered himself. He had to be strong for his friends, for the kids, for Jack. He couldn't keep thinking that way if he was going to stop Pitch Black. One way or another, he'd return to his form and get back at the nightmare king for ever twisting Jack's thoughts for his own gain. Never would he allow that man to hurt another child.

After going through the alley and out into the street, he headed to where he knew Jamie Bennett's house to be. He hopped along, wishing he was bigger so the trip wouldn't take so long. If he was normal size, he wouldn't be so slow, not so weak or useless. He could have stayed and-

_Stop it,_ he thought.

Just as he turned another corner, a fearling's jaws came to close to taking off his ears. He should have known it wasn't going to be easy, he thought as he slid under a parked car on the street, barely missing the black stallions teeth. As the horse tried to reach him from one side, the small rabbit escaped from the other side and rushed down the street, trying to get as far as he could before the fearling could catch up.

But before he could slide beneath another car up ahead, another fearling blocked his way, and he skidded to a stop. Trying to back from where he came, he found that way blocked to by the previous stallion. Trapped, his mind wandered again to how useless he was. He couldn't even fight these two fearlings.

No, it couldn't end here, not like this. He had to be strong, even if that was in 12 inch form. _Have some hope._ Without another moment to waste, the small Pooka dashed off of the street and into another alley. They were quick, but not as agile as him for when they were so close to catching him, Bunny would turn sharply, and they'd fall behind.

Each and every time those black stallions came close, he'd slide underneath a trash bin or turn a corner, even slip through a fire escape's stairs, and they would try to follow him and would get their heads caught, or crash into the obstacles. No way would he let himself be taken out by a couple of fearlings. Hope is too stubborn to die like that.

It had taken him what felt like forever of twist and turns, but he started to notice the glitter of familiar luminous gold sparkling in the night. Sandy had to be close by. Yet when he was worrying about Sandy's whereabouts, he failed to notice that he was back on the street, a vulnerable place, too open. As well as failing to notice that, he also didn't see the fearling that came hurtling over to him off to the side before it was only feet away from him.

Bunny couldn't move out of the way fast enough, but he tried anyways. And when he squinted his eyes close, waiting for those teeth to crush him, he told himself, _You tried. You didn't give up, and that's all that matters._

But as seconds passed by, nothing came. Maybe death was just that swift, that he didn't even feel the pain? Opening his eyes, he saw that was still on the street, but there was no nightmare sand, only luminous gold shimmering in the night. After being with the guardians for hundreds of years, he'd recognize that from anywhere.

"Sandy?" he said aloud. The name felt comforting and familiar on his tongue, like their was no time that he'd stopped saying it.

And then he saw him, that little- now bigger than him- gold man. Blonde hair, sparkling eyes, shimmering clothes that folded in a way that reminded him of a desert. Sandman warmly smiled at him as he touched down and onto the street in front of him, recognizing the Pooka even though he wasn't his six-foot-one self anymore.

Relief and excited rushed through his tiny body. "Sandy!" he called again, like a child and with all the strength he had went towards his ex-dead friend. Behind Sandman, he saw the children, Jamie Bennett, the last believer, and his other friends. When Jamie caught sight of him, he called out to his friends with excitement on his face, "Look, guys, it's the Easter Bunny," and pointed at him.

They didn't see him at first, he knew, but as they continued to look his way, he saw the way their eyes lit out and the hope filling within them. They could see him. They believed in him. He felt their belief, strong and powerful, filling the small Pooka's body. Power- so much power in their belief.

He ran even faster, and the Easter Bunny didn't even realize the change in him, inside and out, as he ran to his fellow guardian and saviors.

**./../\..\.**

_It wasn't cold, but he couldn't help but shiver. He saw nothing, but he felt eyes watching from behind. Dread. He knew it was coming and knew it wouldn't be good, and there was no way to get around it. _

_From afar, he saw the light growing closer, a room. It was then he realized he wasn't standing, but instead floating on air, but this shouldn't be possible with no wind, at least he'd never been able to without it. The white room came closer, and his body passed through small opening and fell to the white ground beneath him. A _crunch_ came when his weight fell onto it._

_His eyes adjusting to the opposite environment from before, he found everything covered in white. White sprinkled on top of green patio chairs and glass tables and brown roofs and grey sidewalks. The white softly fell from the white sky._

_But something about the familiar streets and houses made him more and more confused. It was Burgess, but wasn't he just there in the middle of the night, not the afternoon as it seemed now? And wasn't he talking to the guardians-_

_Where were they? Where was Pitch Black? _

_About to take to the skies, he realized his staff wasn't in his hand. Thinking he'd dropped it when he came in, he looked around at the bushes and trees, but it was no where to be found. Actually, the black room he was in was gone, too. What was going on? He shook it off and started running to the street where he was last with the guardians. It felt strange having to run instead of flying like he always would, but he still made it to his destination, and in front of him he saw a girl with familiar green feathers and man in a red coat, their backs turned to him._

_"North!" he called out, sprinting towards them with a relief visible on his face. They were safe, and he wasn't alone-_

_His thoughts were uninterrupted by the sight of the twin swords being unsheathed by the white-bearded man. Spinning around with the swords pointed towards the teen, the boy slid to a stop, even falling to the ground to try to stop the sword from protruding through his chest. His relief was gone and in its absence was fear. "N-North?"_

_The man's white pupilless eyes stared at him, his eyebrows knitted together in anger. Everything was the same about him, the stringy white hair, the ushanka on the top of his head, the fur on his coat, even the wrinkles around his eyes. But those eyes were not his. They did not widen with wonder, no blue iris, no black pupils. Those where not his eyes, and Jack wanted nothing more than to get those eyes off of him._

_"Wat do you want?" he asked begrudgingly, his accent thick and deep. _

_"What's going on, North? I don't understand..." The sword crept closer to his throat, just below his Adam's apple at the jugular notch, the hollow of his throat. Cold sweat beaded down the sides of his face._

_A woman, the hummingbird girl, laughed at his response. Turning around as well, Jack could see that her violet eyes were not there, only the ever present white around him. "Didn't you realize that it was all your fault? You're the reason we're dead now. Nobody cares about us anymore, just like no one cares about you. Fear has taken over, and childhood is gone. All because of you." She smiled wickedly at him, like she shared an inside joke with him, but there was nothing sweet about that smile on her lips._

_She turned away from him, and North receded as well, sheathing his swords as he and the Tooth fairy walked away from him. _

_"But wait-" he started to say as he got back on his feet, but a familiar yet foreign grey Pooka stood in front of him, standing at six foot one. "Bunny? How'd you-"_

_When he heard the Australian's voice, the large Pooka's lips didn't move, neither did those white eyes blink. "We should never have trusted you." The large Pooka cracked, and Jack watched as it shattered into black shards of glass, all sharp and thin. They danced to the ground musically, a note being heard as each one dropped and didn't rise again. But in the middle of that pile of shards sat a familiar grey rabbit but its eyes were not green like they should be.__"Look what you did to me," Bunnymund exclaimed, his white eyes filled with anger. "You ruin everything you touch! Look at me!" He held his paws high, but that was only so far. "How am I suppose to protect the kids when you made me into this!?" He shook his head and started to hop towards the other two, all of them leaving him in their dust._

_A thought jolted the frost boy into motion towards the ceding guardians. They were leaving him alone, again. He was going to be alone with no one there, not even another human. It was a wasteland with no sky and no true earth. Nothing existed beyond the town, he knew. If they left, if he couldn't find them, he would be alone, trapped in a god-foresaken world where sanity would be lost._

_Jack couldn't sit back and allow that. "Wait!" he called to them. He started to run towards them, until he felt the black glass shards on the ground pierce his feet, and he fell once more, jabbing a few others into his arms and legs as he did. He tried to pick himself up again, yet he was so tired, so sick of everything that he just wanted to lay there among with shattered black glass even though they caused his blood to drip and mix with the thin layer of white snow. They were cold against his skin, even for him, a winter spirit. _

_Picking one up from beside him, Jack brought it close to his face to see the black shard. It looked grainy, like nightmare sand, but it was held together by ice, he noticed which made it sleek and sharp. _

_Ironically, Pitch's voice still repeated that one question he could never believe, not with what has happened:_

What goes better with cold than dark?

**./../\..\.**

North's twin swords slashed through yet another fearling's body, bringing it down to nothing more than spilled sand on the street. "Tooth, get Jack out of here!" he roared as he pivoted away from a nightmare stallion's hooves. Tooth, trying to oblige to his order, tried to lift the boy into her arms, but without her wings, he was too heavy. Her feet weren't used to that kind of weight even if Jack was light even for his size.

She had to half drag him and carry the large staff to get him out of the area from where the Russian was fighting on his own. She took him to the closest alley, hoping he'd be safest there. Once she made it inside the mouth of the alley, she nearly dropped the teen from exhaustion. She felt it in her bones, that loss of strength that was there when she had believers. Now she was as vulnerable as any human, even more for she could see spirits like Pitch Black and they would figure out of her weak state.

Heaving the boy a bit farther, she finally set the boy up against a green trash bin and herself beside him. When she looked at his face, her heart ached. His eyes clenched, eyebrows furrowed, sweat beading down the sides of his face. A nightmare is what he was having, and Tooth could do nothing but watch. Shaking his shoulder and yelling in his ear wouldn't pull him out of this.

_Useless,_ she thought to herself. Without children's belief, she was no better than Bunny. How North was out there fighting, she didn't understand. That one kid must have some powerful belief. She stood to her feet again and walked to mouth of the alley again, looking out. She had to get back out there. If Bunny and North were risking their lives and fighting when they were so weak, should would share this with them. Tooth had to do something, anything to help them, not just sit back and watch. _  
_

But she couldn't leave Jack, not in the state he was in.

"Tooth?!"

She heard the Australian's voice from down the street, but she was expecting was not what she saw. His size. He stood all six feet and one inch, proud and strong. Behind him were several kids, each one staring at her with curiosity and anticipation. They could see her! But when she saw the shimmer gold man, she couldn't hold back anymore.

"Sandy!" she cried as she raced to snatch him in her arms and never let go.

"Tooth! You're flyin'!" Bunny pointed out as she realized herself the hum of her wings behind her. She clashed into the gold man who wasn't expecting the force of a freight train to tackle him, but greeted her warmly, laughing even.

"Ms. Tooth Fairy, you are so cool!" one of the boys with darker skin and an orange beanie said to her as he released Sandy from her death grip.

"Caleb, she's more than cool; She's awesome!" another dark skinned boy said to the other, probably his brother.

"Tooth," Bunny interrupted. "Where's Jack?"

She gasped in realization. She'd left him completely defenseless when there are fearlings all over the city and Pitch Black not far away. "In the alley. Quickly!" Without waiting to see if they were following, she flew at full speed to where she last left the winter spirit. When she fluttered into the alleyway and over to his body, she found nothing different, not even the scowl on his face. He was safe.

Toothiana let out a sigh of relief as the others caught up to her. "Jack Frost?" Jamie questioned when the hummingbird hybrid turned to Sand. She told him the situation, of him being stuck in a nightmare and how North was out there alone fighting for his life. "Can you help him?" she asked, pointing at the young white-haired boy.

But before he answered, he cast a gold a whip towards the entrance to the alley, destroying the fearling that had been lurking in the shadows, waiting for its chance that never came. Sandy signed to the fairy and Pooka. _"There will be more, but I can't fight while I'm in Jack's mind. Watch my back."_

The two nodded without hesitation, wanting to help the spirit and willing to protect him and the children at all cost.

After smiling at his two best friends, the Sandman stood beside the dreaming boy, still lent against the green trash bin, and put his gold hand on the boy's left temple, pushing his mind into the other's.

**./../\..\.**_  
_

**Aeona Liz showed me the quote. THANK YOU! *sending you virtual cookies***

**The alley they are in is the one from the movie... or it's at least the one I remember :P**

**To tell you the truth, the dream Jack had- I actually dreamed about the guardians shattering into black glass. It was about Jack making ice sculptures and the guardians came and shattered along with the other ice sculptures, and Jack was all alone. My dreams are weird :P**

**AAHH There was so much I wanted to do for this chapter, but I never got to do it! I guess that means you're all going to get another chapter than I'd planned. I hope this chapter is okay. I think it seemed a little too hopeful for the future, but maybe that's just what the guardians need, for everything to be filled with hope? **

**Next Chapter: June 30th. I'll try to post earlier if I can! (PS the more reviews I get the more quicker it'll come!)**

**Please, I beg you, review! Right now it's very crucial that you do, so I can see and alter the next chapter if needed. Review, and Thank you!**


	11. Chapter 11

**POSTING EARLY :D**

**Shout-outs:**

**Darkblade 2.0: Haha thank you so much. I always get annoyed when people write about dreams because they're usually too basic and you can't get the feel that it's not reality, that it seems just like any other day. I think mine could have been better, but I think I'd just bore all of you guys :)**

**AlexJohnD: Yah, well I know places where it's 95%+ for an A, so I can't complain :P At least I didn't die in that dream. I swear, in every one of my dreams, I either die from natural cause all the way to creepy pale girls with long black hair with dislocated limbs stabbing me (don't ask me how that works). My mind is weird :P And thanks, the rest of the story should be smooth sailing.**

**ObsidianLove: Let's face it, Jude Law can make anyone hot! :D The reason Sandy hasn't spread sand everywhere yet is because Pitch still doesn't realize he's alive... Rest is explained in the chapter.**

**Chapter 11:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at anytime."_

_-Mark Twain_

The gold man dived into the teen's mind, leaving his body vulnerable for anyone still on the outside, but Bunny and Tooth would nver allow that. Tooth sighed as she watched Sandy close his eyes in concentration on the task at hand. "Bunny, I know we need to protect them, but... North is only one out there fighting. You have to get out there."

The Pooka eyed all of the kids, saw their confused yet always smiling faces. They didn't even realize that all of the guardians' lives could be lost if not for them. Though with everything going on, the smiled with missing teeth, still in their pajamas with their favorite superheroes and wearing coats too big and soft.

His eye moved to Jack, the teen for eternity with hair snow-white like an old man, but he was as mischievous as any child could be. But even when things seemed gloomy, he'd hear stories of Jack Frost doing ridiculous things that made other spirits' days. When Tooth lost her fairies and was left with only Baby Tooth, he'd still did everything he could to help and loved to make other's smile.

He was planning on leaving them all there in these fearling infested streets. He knew Tooth was increasing in power like he was, but he didn't want to leaver her, not when he can do something. She could only protect so many and herself. At least they were somewhat hidden though the Tooth Fairy was weaponless. Quickly, he looked around himself, but saw nothing, but soon his eyes laid on the wooden shepherd's staff that leant beside the sleeping spirit. "Here." He held it out to the green feathered girl who took it without hesitation.

**./../\..\.**

_When he saw the golden feet, he thought he knew what would come- the white puppilless eyes, the wrath of the Sandman and being left again. But what stood in front of him was none of those things. Though the others had all blamed him, when he looked up at the gold man standing in front of him, his eyes were still there. Their were his gold iris with black pupils in the center of them. There was no anger on his face, only a smile, an understanding smile, one that knew the good and bad that made up Jack Frost and accepted all of it._

_"Sandy?" He reached his hand out as well, but when his hand reached his line of sight, he didn't see his familiar abnormal paleness, but... Black, grainy. Nightmare sand. It was consuming him, and he hadn't realized it. Looking up at the older man, he repeated the name again, though more frantically._

_After smiling reassuringly at the boy, he grabbed his hand and pulled the boy to his shaking feet. His body was exhausted and the nightmare sand made his body soft and weak. It was dragging him down, consuming him in darkness. But at the gold man's touch, a tingling sensation when through his fingertips and down his blackening arm. Slowly at first, he saw it lightening, the dark shade on his skin ceding. Then the skin started to glow. All of the black was disappearing off of him and light took it's place._

_The light- it was warm and comforting like a mother's arms, encasing him in his sleep. But he couldn't keep sleeping. He had to be there for the guardians. He had to help them._

_He would prove it to them that he was a guardian._

**./../\..\.**

Pitch watched as that bothersome old man continued to slash at his nightmares, destroying their forms and making them nothing more than black sand, but no matter. There was fear in the world because of the lost of the guardians' belief, and he ruled the night with dreams of monsters under the bed and screams of seeing themselves die. He was the top dog now, and one pesky old man wasn't going to change that.

As entertaining as it was to see the old man struggle, Pitch had other things on the agenda, to finally rid of those guardians and rule the world in fear. Nightmare sand flooded to his hand, compressing and forming a familiar weapon of his palm. He loved the thought of all those nightmares children have over the black scythe in his hands, a symbol of harvest, but what kind of harvest is what those kids fear. He remembered how they made out the Reaper, a man shrouded in black coming to take mortals' souls.

Nothing was more feared than death, and he could easily play the part as the bringer of death. Holding the staff at his side, he crept behind the unsuspecting man, sneering at the old man's attempt to fight. His fearlings attacked from everywhere, never giving him a break. He just had to wait for his moment to strike as a snake does with its prey.

He locked his blade with a fearling's teeth, his arms shaking as he tried to keep the monster away from him. His back was completely vulnerable.

_Now-_

Something wooden hit the back of his head, causing him to fall forward. Growling, he turned around and saw the grey Pooka catch the boomerang in his hand. "Why dontcha learn that bad guys never win?"

**./../\..\.**

Jack opened his icy blue eye wide and filled with shock and confusion. He wasn't on the street anymore. No, he was in a darker spot, with light coming from a gold street lamp from above him. He didn't understand how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was the compressing feeling on his mind, the darkness that came with it. His back ached with the way he'd been sitting. Leaning forward then arching back, he popped his spine just as a child with dark brown eyes popped in front of his face from nowhere.

"Whoa." Jack tried to jump back and banged his head on the trash bin behind him. "Argh!" Yah, this wasn't the best way to wake up.

"Oops, sorry!" The kid moved back instead of being only a foot from Jack's face. "You okay, Jack Frost?"

"Yah," he replied while yawning, stretching his back again. Dumpsters were not good to sleep against, neither were alleyways. He turned to look at his left and gasped, hitting his head on the green trash bin again. Sandy, like Jamie, was right in his face with a smile a wide eyes. Man, did no one understand personal space?

Laughter came from a group of kids that now all stood in front of him a bit too close. "He's gonna get brain damage from that, one of the taller girls of the group said dryly.

Rubbing the back of his head, he pulled himself into a standing position, now towering over all of the kids. "Where's my staff?"

"Oh, Ms. Tooth Fairy has it," said a blonde boy with glasses that he adjusted as he spoke.

The teen's eyes widened. "Tooth? Why? Where is she?"

"She needed to fight of those black sand things," replied Jamie. "The fearlings. They came while Sandman was trying to- where are you going?!" he shouted at the fleeing winter spirit.

"I need my staff and have a word with Pitch!" he called from over his shoulder as he ran out of the narrow alley. He stopped for only a moment before dashing out of sight of the children and Sandman.

His body ached from sleep and the crook in his neck was horrible, but he didn't care about that or the drowsiness in his body. He was fed up with Pitch. Though he may not want to be a guardian, he couldn't let Pitch Black continue to tell lies and spread fear. He didn't want to help the other spirits like Jack did. He was selfish and only wanted power. He was envious and prideful, wrathful and greedy. He had to be stopped.

Turning down a new street, he saw the hummingbird girl flying towards him at a low enough altitude that if he didn't have fast enough reflexes, she would have taken his head off. "Whoa," he blurted as he leaped forward to the asphalt as to dodge the speeding Tooth Fairy.

"Sorry, Jack!" She shouted while zooming away with several fearlings on her tail. She spun around and swung at one of the fearlings using Jack's staff, the one he needed from her.

He called her name as he stood in the middle of the street, not watching his back as another fearling lurked behind. Before Jack realized it, he was eating the concrete. There was no time to try to catch himself and his head knocked on the hard surface. His vision blurred, but he could make out the black hoof just inches away from his face. He tried to move but his body refused until he felt pressure on his throat, choking him. He grabbed at the object and felt his sweat shirt being the object held tightly to his throat. He tugged at it, but it didn't loosen, so he had to hold it. Then he felt his body leave the asphalt and his body getting higher and higher.

The fearling had lifted him up by the hood of his sweatshirt and was raising him up and and away from the cars lining the streets and buildings and up closer to the clouds.

_Not good, not good, _he chanted in his mind as he continued to pull at the suffocating hoodie. The wind would whipped and whistled around him, but without his staff, it would not carry him away from the fearling. He was on his own with this nightmare until he saw Tooth below him and she looking at him with wide and fearful eyes.

A bad idea came to mind, and he listened to it.

He shrugged and twisted in his jumper until he slipped out of it and started falling with the wind whirling around him towards the unyielding ground below him.

**./../\..\.**

Tooth zoomed towards the falling teenage boy. What was he thinking, just letting himself fall like that? He didn't have his staff, yet he didn't care that he was falling with no wind that could catch wings hummed loudly in her ears, but she didn't slow. He had to get to him as soon as possible. It unnerved her to see him so vulnerable.

_A bit_ more, she told herself. Just_ a little bit_-

Her thought was lost as something bashed into her, pushing her off course of the falling winter spirit. Another fearling came by and hit her, and this time she toppled back, flipping in the air. When she was upright again, she tried to refind the white haired teenager... but she didn't see him.

She spun around while dodging a fearling, searching for her friend, but he was not there. Tears welled in her eyes as panic coursed through her. Her eyes searched the ground below, yet he wasn't there either.

When she heard the jolly laugh above her, more tears slipped between her eyelashes, but this time from relief. Tilting her head back, she saw the sleigh hauled by North's reindeer speed through the sky with a white haired teen sitting in the back.

**./../\..\.**

**This chapter was a bit predictable at first, but I hope you guys liked it.**

**I finally got a new battery that should work, so once I get it put in, I should be able to more quickly write chapters and will be more interested to write online. I've been thinking of doing a few Percy Jackson one shots while I write the ROTBTD fic. What do you all think? (Can't wait to read House Of Hades!)**

**PLEASE REVIEW, I BEG ALL OF YOU TO TYPE ANYTHING! TALK ABOUT COWS OR YOUR IDIOTIC FRIENDS OR THE NEW SHIRT YOU GOT AT THE MALL! ANYTHING!**

**The Final Chapter: July 4th.**

**See you all then.**

**BTW you guys should PM me because I'm open to conversations about random stuff and I'm bored :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Heads Up: Find a comfortable seat to read in because it's long.**

**Final Shout-outs:**

**Blueberry Ninja: Thank. You.**

**Caithlinn13: I know! But I just got so sick of staring at that chapter and just kind of wrote gibberish as t get to the part I wanted. All I can say is that this chapter is gonna be good :)**

**AlexJohnD: Ha! You really think I'd kill off my favorite character? NOPE. Jackie-pooh is off limits from death. The Mark Twain quote actually wasn't used for its full potential since I decided to pull a few scenes back and into this chapter instead. So I guess you can think that it's also for this chapter, too.**

**Darkblade 2.0: Aw, it's okay, hun. It is addicting, though I've never played the PC versions. :) Haha, glad you liked it, and no that wasn't Jack's suicide attempt. He figured Tooth would catch him. Oh, I'm supposed to die the tips of my hair aqua or turquoise soon! Hope yours turned out okay (my friend has blond hair and added dark blue, and she apparently did it wrong and got green) (Just now realizing my hair looks green in my profile pic. 0_0)**

**lovepuppy316: See? That dream fits perfectly with Jack and his fear... And Jack ****_is_ clothed****. Sorry to break it to yah XD**

**Happy 4th of July everybody, USA's Independence day! Red, white and blue all around! (And if you're not American, well, hope you're having a lovely and normal day while we dress up and blow up fireworks tonight.)**

**After listening Pandora for _SEVERAL_**** hours and not sleeping, I've been able to give you the Final Chapter:**

_**Believed In, Feared In**_

_"You can only come to the morning through the shadows" -J.R.R Tolkien_

North whipped the reigns to the reindeer, encouraging them to go faster as he gave a roaring laugh. "See, Jack," he called over his shoulder. "Guardians will protect you." Jack cackled with the old man as his chest rose deeply. Just moments ago he watched Tooth about to catch him but then knocked to the side by a fearling. His plan was for her to catch him. She was going to save him.

The boy didn't answer, his fingers fiddling with the old and withered tan long-sleeved shirt. He's always worn it under his hoodie after all these years. He'd watched as three hundred years flashed before him, and he truly thought it would be end to Jack Frost. That is, until North came out of nowhere, and caught him just moments before he would have met his untimely demise. It scared him that after all these years, he'd die so simply from something so mortal as a fall.

The winter spirit was so helpless without his staff. Without it, he couldn't control the wind or his power. He was defenseless, nothing more than a human, except for the fact that he couldn't be seen by other humans. Truly, he was nothing without it. "North, where's Tooth?" Jack shouted to the older man.

"Tooth? She's somewhere! Probably finding Sandy."

Jack quickly looked over the side, leaning halfway out of the sleigh. He had to get his staff from her, unless he wanted to be a sitting duck for the rest of this fight. As he scanned the area, fearlings flew past the sleigh, some turning their attention to the winter boy and Santa Claus. North saw them circling the sleigh. "Jack, you get-..." He then realized that Jack was without his staff.

Jack noticed the hesitation in his voice and looked at the older man. He truly was worthless without his staff.

"Take the reigns, will you?"

When he moved over to take the reigns, he smiled a bit. The last time North let him drive, they basically crash landed. The two switch places just in time for North to slash through an oncoming fearling. And then came another, and another. There were so many that Jack was trying to dodge them while attempting to remain in the air.

Off in the distance he saw in the street the Tooth Fairy with his shepherd's crook in hand. Before warning North, he veered to left, heard the groan gasp of North as he tried to keep his balance, and headed towards Toothiana. This was his chance to get his staff and show the guardians he was still good for this fight. Just a little bit more-

As his mind was stuck only on his staff, he failed to see the three fearlings lined together that came his way and rammed into the side of the sleigh. The force of their hit made the sleigh tilt and wood tore from main structure, splinters flying and Jack had to shield his eyes with his arms, but that allowed the sleigh to spin out less control.

The reindeer, spooked and confused started trying to run in any direction they could, taking the winter boy down and through the forest on outskirts of Burgess. Branches scratched and clawed past his face as the caribou went lower and lower into the forest and finally reaching the rocky earth of the forest.

The deer twisted and pulled the sleigh, but it skidded and knocked into the trees. The jolt was just enough to break the hitch connecting the sleigh and reindeer. The sleigh wasn't going anywhere now.

Jack, who'd been pushed into the back out of the sleigh, groggily stood up, his back aching and head pounding. _Dear Moon, how many times can a person take of hitting their head until their brain exploides?_ he mocked while he looked around and saw the glistening of his lake just yards away from he and the ruins of the sleigh. North was going to kill him. Actually, where was the man.

"North?!" he called out, but he was nowhere to be seen. He must've fallen off earlier, hopefully when they were lower to the ground. He could worry about that later though. He ran in the direction he last saw Tooth. The city of Burguess was on the other side of the small pond. He'd just have to pass that and go over there and find her-

Or have her run into him at full speed.

The wind was knocked out of his lungs as her shoulder stabbed into his gut. Not expecting the force, he fell with Tooth on top of him with a wing in his face. "Tooth," he sputtered with a ragged breath. He patted her on the shoulder. "Tooth... Need you off."

She groaned as she sat up and got off of the winter spirit. "Sorry, Jack. A nightmare attacked me and I spun out of control."

"Never mind that. Where's my staff?"

Her eyes widened suddenly, remembering. "I- I lost it when I got hit. It has to be close though." Her wings started to beat, raising her into the air. "Don't worry, I'll find it, Jack." She turned just in time to see the racing fearling and quickly move out of its way. "They just never give me a break!" She buzzed after it as another few started following behind her.

Jack shook his head. If he wanted his staff, he'd have to find it himself. He ran over to where his pond was, and he saw it there. In a tree beside the lake his staff hung in one of the higher branches. Coming closer to it, he realized there was no chance in climbing. The wind whistled around as he started to call to it. "Come on, wind. Just one time. Just a little bit of air to knock it out."

He begged an pleaded as the wind picked up. "Yah, that's it, wind. Just a little bit more."

The branches waved and brushed one another as the staff slipped from them and fell onto the iced pond. He sighed and started running towards after he thanked the wind. But while he was trying to get the shepherd's staff from the tree, he didn't notice the black sand stallion with white puppiless eyes stalking him. It was only when Jack felt the force of its hooves on his back knock him down did he realize it was there.

He quickly rolled to the side to miss the hooves from crushing him, the ice chipping as the stallion stomped on it. Jack tried to get up, but more came and knocked him back down. There had to be a dozen now, all surrounding him on his lake. The one from before raised its front feet once more, and this time there was no place for Jack to go.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the impact of the hooves on his chest that were sure to leave marks.

But it never came. When he opened his eyes, Jack saw the black sand sprinkled on his tan shirt and the ice around him.

"I leave yah for a few minutes, and I find ya on the other side of town and havin' all the fun," Jack heard someone yell as another fearling fell to dust from an unexpected boomerang spliced through it.

The boomerang was caught by a smirking, six foot one Pooka. Bunnymund. One of the stallions huffed, clawing its hoof on the ground before charging. But just as it came ten feet in front of him, a pink egg grenade was thrown at the fearling. In puff of pink, the egg and the horse were destroyed. The rest began to turn their attention to the Pooka. Now was Jack's chance.

Struggling to his feet, he ran on the ice of his pond to where his staff laid, but something wrapped around his leg and pulled, bring him to his hands and knees. He tried to run, but the thing on his leg wouldn't budge. "Dammit!" he cursed aloud, frustrated with how the world refused him to be reunited with his staff.

The thing on his leg yanked him back farther away from his staff. Flipping onto his back, Jack got a good look at the black sand whip that was now rubbing his ankle raw. Black sand. When it was there, Pitch was close by, and oh how right he was.

"So much struggling for just a little piece of firewood."

Jack turned around and saw the dark man pick up his staff. His blood boiled and froze all at the same time from fear and anger. Between clenched teeth, he mumbled to the older man, "If you know what's good for you, you'd give that back."

"For what's good for me?" he laughed with that British accent of his, his golden cat eyes watching to frost boy carefully. "I don't think you're in any position of authority. Besides," He twiddled the staff between his fingers, "I'll be calling the shots once the guardians are out of the way. This world will be run on nothing but fear, known by everyone and teach everyone the power of what real fear can do."

"What about all the other spirits?" Jack asked.

"Oh, they'll be given the choice to work for me or let fear swallow them like it will for anyone else who defies me. And a part of that is why I'm here. You were my ally, so my question is if you still are or if you've changed your mind." He held the staff horizontally, stroking the wood, feeling the grooves that shaped its skin. "If you changed your mind, then you'll end up just like the guardians will. But if you choose to come back to me, then we can put this ordeal behind us. You're choice."

Jack almost laughed. Was he really that stupid? To think that he would ever ally with that monster. His shoulders shook as he tried suppress his laughter. "You still don't get it. I want _nothing_ to do with you. Everything about you makes me sick. What you are doing is destroying these kids lives and killing honorable spirits, your own kind." His voice started to rise. "Though the guardians have their rough spots, their still better than you'll ever be, and I'd rather be stuck with that annoying kangaroo than have to listen to anymore of your speeches."

At that, Jack found himself on his side and his cheek burning, the blood rushing to it. His vision blurred as he looked at the Nightmare King that had swung at him with his own staff. "I'm starting to get really sick of you," he sneered as he dropped the staff with a clatter and held his hand out as black sand was magnetized to it. It shaped into his favorite scythe, a weapon that has brought so much death in tales of old and never forgotten. Raising the blade above his head, he added, "You should have stayed with the dead where you belonged."

**./../\..\.**

Sandy pulled the children along after Jack had run off, trying to get them to a safer location, but those fearlings just had to be everywhere tonight. Crossing a street, he had to quickly jump up to miss from being trampled by a fearling's hooves and hopped on the back of it. As he concentrated during the stallion's bucking, trying to knock him off, he spread his golden sand to it and changed it instead to a unicorn.

One of the children wearing a pink tutu laughed and smiled at seeing the gold animal. But just as he was smiling back at the girl, he failed to see the other fearling which swooped down and spliced through the unicorn, destroying it into a puff of gold.

Another six followed after and all with their sights on the Sandman and children with him. Pulling out his whips, the gold man flicked it towards one of the nightmares and destroyed it, but before the whip could be retracted, another bit onto the end and yanked the whip along with the gold man.

"Sandman!" the children shouted simultaneously.

The gold man was slammed to ground with a thud that vibrated underneath the kids' feet. As the sandman was left in a daze, the fearlings surrounded the man, preparing to finish him for good this time.

Seeing this, Jamie ran towards the dazed Sandman right to where all the black nightmares stood. "No!" the boy exclaimed as he put a hand on the creature. At his touch, gold spread through the monster and giving it a glow in the night. The brown-haired boy, surprised, started to step away as the sand changed from nightmare to dream sand. Before his eyes, the creature morphed from a horse to a gold stingray.

Did he do that?

The others stared at him with the same question in mind. He put his hand in front of him, extending and clenching his fingers. All he did was touch the nightmare, and it changed, just like Sandman had.

___But dreamers are even greater than us,_ Sandy had before. When Sandy had first told him that, he thought Sandy had said it only to comfort him, but now he thought it meant even more than he would have dreamed. Is this what he meant, that he could change nightmares to dreams, change fear to better things?

Jamie smiled to himself as the other fearling turned to him. There was more to him than meets the eye.

**./../\..\.**

Everything was too fast and too slow. He didn't have time to stop Pitch's raised scythe, but he did the only thing he though he could do, not caring what the after effect could be.

_Tooth's would probably bash my head and call me stupid with tears in her eyes, _he thought as the pain took over his torso and shot through all the way to the tips of his ears.

**./../\..\.**

Jack couldn't move for himself. His body was frozen with fear, his blood run cold. His heart ached with every beat, and his lungs screamed for him to release the breath he'd been holding. He watched with crystal clear vision as the black sand scythe came down and Pitch smiling with satisfaction at the fear radiating off of him.

His vision though blurred from one side with grey, but then it grew and and covered his entire vision. When his eyes focused on the grey object, he realized he recognized the tribal tattoos along with the tall ears of the Pooka in front of him. He watched without moving as his friend stepped between he and Pitch Black.

And instead of moving or screaming, he only watched as the black sand scythe went through the Pooka, protruding through his torso. He heard the cry of pain from the grey rabbit, long and echoing in the late and cloudy night. It pierced the winter spirit's ears. His icy blue eyes widened as he saw the blood on the end of the scythe and dampening the grey fur to a deep red. He smelt its noxious and empowering stench, burning his nose and closing his throat.

_Stop._

The dark man smiled greedily as he dug his scythe deeper through the Pooka, bringing more screams and cries of pain from the one with shocked emerald eyes.

_Stop it,_ Jack wanted to scream, but his lungs still held an aching breath.

Bunny grunted once more as the dark man pulled the scythe from his body, and Jack watched with unblinking eyes as the Pooka slumped forward. His blood spread to the ice, slipping to the crevasses of scratched and chips in the ice as well as pooling below his body.

_Please, stop it!_

Jack watched as the ashen skinned man put his foot on the back the Pooka and knelt down beside him, grinning ear to ear. "Oh, did you care for this worthless boy?" he mocked in false concern. "You should have known better than to just let me kill you so easily. You're only helping me by dying and leaving the boy completely defenseless."

Bunny's body racked with a cough but remained compressed by the cat-eyed man's foot. His voice hoarse, he spoke, "At least I can pay back my dept to him... If I die, then I can go without regret."

At that, the man laughed wickedly. "No regret? You really think that you dying will erase all the hurt, all the silent and lonesome years that you put him through? And what about the mental and physical abuse? All the put-downs and that punch to the face. You really think this is an equivalent exchange?"

The Pooka, though lying on his bleeding stomach, shook his head. "It doesn't, but my life is all I have for payment. At least I'll know that I...I did all I could."

A chuckle escaped the dark man as he removed his foot and pulled the Pooka up by his ears. "You all are so useless, always following your emotions instead of your head. It's the reason humans have such short lives and spirits, too."

_Shut up._

With what seemed like only a simple flick, Pitch threw the Pooka and knocked him into the cliff side on the ice. His blood still stained the ice where he once laid.

_Stop it. _

Pitch's eyes turned back to the young winter spirit who still laid on his back, his arms back bracing him and eyes too wide to be comfortable. Sneering he asked, "Aw you didn't like seeing that, did you?" He crept over in front of the boy, still holding the staff comfortably in his hand and not caring that it was so close to the winter spirit. "Aww, don't be upset, Frost. It's not your fault that this pest decided to kill himself because of you-"

In a flash, Pitch's face was pushed to the side with lightning speed and a clap of skin on skin echoed in the clearing. Jack's hand and Pitch's cheek burned from the slap the winter spirit had given him. The cat eyed man's eyes widened in shock, not expecting the boy to have such courage.

"Shut up!" Jack screamed at the man with anger burning through him. As his anger raised, things around started to frost or freeze more, including the black whip on his ankle. "You don't get it, do you? I don't care about payment! We're friends, allies! I don't blame him anymore. I'm not going let him die just because of payment or because I'm weak!"

The whip froze completely and with a tug, it shattered which allowed the boy to leap the dark man. The older man raised the staff in front of him horizontally to stop the boy, but that's what Jack expected. The white-haired boy grabbed onto the staff, boosting his power and ice formed on the hands of the nightmare king. Yanking his hands off the staff, the ice stopped growing on his hands, though the temperature had dropped.

Pitch quickly jumped back as a shard of ice shot into the frozen surface of the lake in front of him where he once stood. Jack now had his staff. The game had changed from victory in his hands to a challenge. Even he understood the physical power that Jack held.

He he managed to cast a shield of black sand before magic from Jack's staff could touch him though it froze the sand. Jack came again with fury in his eyes, swinging his staff only a second too slow for the raven haired man's head was barely missed.

Pitch formed a dagger in his vacant hand and thrust forward, yet the younger boy was quicker. Now with more distance between one another, Pitch manipulated the nightmare sand towards Jack just as Jack sent a wave of magic towards Pitch.

The two clashed, sending pale smoke in the aftermath that blinded the winter spirit.

After feeling the dark presence behind him, he moved only a second soon enough before the scythe could impale him. It instead embedded itself into the ice of the lake to a point where Pitch yanked but couldn't pull it out. This was Jack's chance. He swung his staff at the man, managing a good hit to the man's face which caused him to stumble back. Jack came again though Pitch was ready this time with that dagger in hand.

With one short move, Pitch aimed the thin dagger right at the boy's gut

Pale hands wrapped around the wrist of the dark man, the the end of the blade only going through his tan shirt and a hint of flesh.

The two fought for dominance, trying to push the dagger towards the other, never ceding in fear of where the dagger will end, though in the rush of the moment, Jack had forgotten the dagger was made of black sand, Pitch's element.

Suddenly, the dagger was gone, and Jack fell forward on the ice, giving the other enough time to get back on his feet and ready his weapon again just as Jack grabbed for his staff.

The two weapons clashed. Again they fought for dominance. Jack's arms started to shake as Pitch added more stress between their weapons. Pitch's size gave him the upper hand from where they stood. The dark man laughed as the boy's knees bent from the pressure. "All that talk for nothing? Don't tell me you're going to die so easily. I thought you would be an actual challenge." Jack continued tremble as time passed, fire burning through then painfully. "No matter. You need to die, anyways."

In a quick attempt, he stomped his foot on the ice beneath him, magic surging through the bottom of his foot, and the ice reacted to it. Like a spring, the ice jolted the dark man back by suddenly raising. As Pitch slid on the ice of the lake, Jack shot more and more spike of ice from his staff, yet each and everyone was stopped by black sand or dodged.

Jack was really getting sick of this game of going back and forth. His body wasn't doing well with the all the energy used physically and of using his ability. He could only take so much more until his body gave in.

**./../\..\.**

The tooth fairy had spliced each and every fearling. Black sand sprinkled the streets from the remains. Now she had to find Jack and the others. Heading back to the forest, she saw the red coat and touched down beside the man who was lying face first in the snow.

"North?" She called to the man as she knelt beside him.

He moaned in the snow but slowly listed his head with snow sticking on his face and a cherry red nose. "I'm going kill Jack," he grumbled, pulling himself to his feet. Rubbing his head, he looked around confusingly. "Eh, Where's Jack?"

"I-I don't know. That's why I'm here. Where's your sleigh?"

"Good question. Why don't you ask Jack that?" He mocked dryly.

She sighed. "That's why I'm here. Where is Jack and the sleigh?"

"Probably crashed," he replied without looking at her as he started walking into the forest with Tooth following behind. _How hard did he hit his head?_ she asked herself.

The two walked through the forest until they found the ruins that once were the sleigh. Scratches and dents line the side of the sleigh. Inside of it, there were branches and leaves that must've fallen with the crash. Along with that the hitch connecting the sleigh with the reindeer was broken. Actually, the reindeer were nowhere to be seen. North at the sight, didn't widen his eyes or lift his eyebrows, but only said four words:

"I'm gonna kill 'em."

**./../\..\.**

Jack had an idea though he didn't know how well it would work. Ducking, a scythe barely missed his neck, a strike that would have sliced his head clean off if he hadn't moved quick enough. After getting a bit of distance between the two of them, he snuck a glimpse towards the small cliff where Bunny had been thrown to, but Jack had to do a double take.

The blood. He hated the sight of seeing it beneath the Pooka. It mocked the winter spirit, telling him of his weakness and his selfishness that brought this mess.

_Focus,_ he ordered himself as he jumped back from the swinging weapon in Pitch's hands. These thoughts are what gets people killed. With Bunny there, he had to be careful not to overdue it, but even with that in mind, he wasn't fully sure how he was to pull it off.

He guessed that it was his only option at the moment. If he didn't try something soon, who knew when the tides would turn for the worse. It was only a matter of time before he slipped up.

"Jack!"

His eyes turned to the familiar voice but quickly moved back as he jumped away from the scythe though not quick enough. It went across his chest, no deep, but still painful, and it shredded the cream shirt he wore. The wind was knocked out of him as Pitch landed a kicked to his chest, causing him to fall on the ice. As Pitch raised his scythe, a gold arrow came his way which caused the dark man to dodge, missing his chance to finish the frost boy.

"Jack," North called as he pulled the boy to his feet. "Sorry, lad."

"It's fine. Go check on Bunny by the cliff. He's injured." And with that, the boy went back to his fight with Pitch, shooting spikes at the dark man. Tooth had already gone to the Pooka's side the moment she came in sight of the lake. The blood. So much blood. She put her ear above his lips, hearing his rasping breathing. Feeling it against her cheek, she released a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

The cat eyed man caught her attention with his laugh. "A final showdown, is it? Is this where we figure out you all care for one another, and you all die just after making up?" His eyes gleamed in the early morning. "What a tragic story." His smile grew even wider. "But, unfortunately, guardians, I'm still in the middle of dealing with Jack Frost. I'll come back to you in few moments. In the meantime," he flicked his hands, calling fearlings from the forest's shadows. "You can play with my-"

The man stopped his speech as white covered his vision, the object cold on his face. Wiping it away, he realized it was snow.

"I thought I already told you," Jack threw another snowball, hitting the dark man again, "I'm sick of your speeches. Let's have a little fun instead."

The fearlings charged for the guardians while Pitch lifted his scythe above his head, and bringing it down where Jack stood only moment before.

Now was Jack's chance to put his plan into action. Hopefully, the guardians will watch out for Bunny.

The scythe impaled the ice, reaching deep to where the lake was not frozen.

_Focus._

He hit his staff on the surface of the ice, bending it to his will.

Crack. Split. The ice broke into pieces all around.

_Focus._

More cracks until the ice beneath Pitch's feet shattered. The nightmare king's golden eyes widened as his body submerged into the freezing water.

Concentrating and using all the energy he had left, he lifted the staff once more and slammed it down on the cracking surface of the ice. Like wounds, they healed, threading together, smoothing the surface of the pond again, but Jack wanted to freeze more than just the surface. As energy drained out him, the water beneath the surface, thickened until the entire bottom of the lake was frozen with Pitch Black within it, freezing him in a place.

Jack's body trembled before his knees buckled beneath him though he slumped against his staff in an attempt to refuse the exhaustion.

_You did it,_ he told himself with a weak smile on his face as he gave up on keeping himself up and simply sat on the ice. Around him, fearlings were going down much quicker than before, especially with the kids helping. Pitch was their leader, a general who knew the the best tactics. With out him, they had no structure, no form, and they were easy to fall. Sure, they were smart, but they had no leader.

Jack would join in if he could, but was on the verge of falling asleep. Putting him in a fight now wouldn't end well. Each and everyone of the fearlings were destroyed in a matter of minutes from slashing swords, slicing wings, golden whips, and the hands from the children.

One of the children, one with chocolate eyes and matching hair and a toothy grin walked over to him holding something blue. "I found your hoodie," Jamie said, holding the jumper out to the white-haired teen.

"Hey, thanks kid," Jack laughed weakly. It hurt to even breathe, as if he ran a marathon. Quickly, he put his favorite signature item back on, feeling the soft material on his cold skin. After he got the collar of the hoodie over his head, he found that Jamie was already gone.

A shadow loomed over him, but he didn't worry until he saw the sadness in the blue eyes. "North?"

"It's Bunny."

Bunny.

Jack looked over to the Pooka and saw the blood soaking his usually grey fur. Every was surrounding him, even the younger kids who were getting a real look at a life threatening injury. The winter teen tried to rise to his feet, but his body wouldn't allow it.

North, seeing the boy's struggle, without a word, lifted the boy into his arms, carrying him to where the Pooka laid. Tooth sat with the Pooka's head in her lap, her eyes rimmed with red from crying. Sandy stood with the children, putting a comforting hand on Jamie's shoulder. As the old man set him down, Jack notice just how deep and uneven the Pooka's breaths were, shaky and threatening to be a last. Jack was already counting his breaths.

One. Two. Three.

"Jack," the Pooka choked out. "Pitch didn't hurt ya, did he?" he asked almost pleadingly. He must've seen how he had to be carried over.

"No, I'm fine, Bunny, thanks to you."

Bunnymund sighed in relief. "Y'-Ya're the one who ended all of this. I spent most of my time hoppin' around," he laughed which ended in a cough.

"Listen, we're gonna get you out of here and patch you up-"

"Nah. It's okay, Jack... I've been around for hundreds of years. Thousands. At some point, every spirit has their life end, same for humans. And now- now is that time."

"B-but what about hope?" Jack pleaded to him. "What about spring and new beginnings. Who'll be the guardian of hope if you just give up?" Tears welled in his pale icy blue eyes. A lump grew in his throat. "You can't just leave us."

"I'm not givin' up hope... Hope lives in everyone and is never fully gone. Anyone can bring hope, which is why I have to ask you to do something for me."

"Anything," he replied, though his voice cracked at the end.

"... Bring hope. Don't give up. Bring fun and hope like you always have."

His eyes widened.

"Live on in my memory, Jack. By the way, you still have a guardian initiation to do." He smiled weakly at the teen. "I know how powerful ya are, and ya're a good person. Ya're good with kids like an older brother would be. Ya're perfect for the spot... That's why I always acted bad to ya. I envied ya, and caused all of this... I'm sorry."

"I should be, not you. I-I help Pitch. I attacked you without thinking. And I- oh Moon- I destroyed your home. I should be the one who's sorry."

"But I drove ya to it..." He huffed. "Some guardian I am."

His breaths were becoming more spaced between on another, his heart slowing, Jack could tell.

"North, Tooth, Sandy?" The three moved to his side. "We had some good years, but mind keepin' Jack out of trouble? And bring hope to the kids?"

Sandy silently chuckled with tears in his eyes. North smiled. "Of course." Sandman then realized how strange and horrible this must look for the younger children, and he created a ball of dreamsand, though it had lost most of its glow, and put each of the children to sleep. Concentrating, he used his dream sand animals to carry them back to their beds before their parents could wake.

Even more, his breaths lengthened. He closed his eyes, hiding his emerald irises as he mumbled, "Thank you, all of you." For a time, it was quiet except for his shallow breaths, and then it was silent. His chest no longer rose, neither did his eyelids open.

It wasn't Tooth he cried first, but Jack Frost. Sobs wracked his body as his eyes streamed with tears. The winter teen hardly noticed the hand that wrapped around his shoulders as he sat with his head in his knees. He caused this. He did this to all of them. If he'd just said no to Pitch when he came to Antarctica, Bunny would still be alive. If he hadn't taken his toothbox, he wouldn't be dead.

He killed Bunny. He killed the Easter Bunny.

North held the boy tight in his own tense arms, trying hold back his own tears. Bunny was his best friend, his brother. Sandy, too, had just lost a brother. The two of them would work together on Easter, and they never argued. And Tooth. She was special to him. All of them cared for the Pooka, and now he was gone.

The group all mourned until the first rays of the early morning touched his skin. His body, filled with exhaustion, finally gave in to sleep. He didn't even notice that North had picked him off the ground again. Pulling a snow globe from his coat, the two stepped through the vortex back to the North Pole while Tooth and Sandy watched over their lost friend.

**./../\..\.**

Days had passed since Bunnymund's funeral. It'd been strange for Jack how only days before, they were having Sandy's funeral. But instead of going into despair, instead of hiding in Antarctica or his lake like he usually would, he only reminded himself what that Pooka had told him to do:

_Live on in my memory._

Yes, he was gone, but people die everyday. And when they die, there is a new generation to take their place.

Jack had a choice to forget what Bunny lived for or to continue his teachings, to change someone else's life because of what Bunny did for him, to do something because of the life he still had. That's why Jack now stood in North's workshop with a smile on his face, the other three guardians standing around him. North held a large and old book in his hand.

"Do you, Jack Frost," the old man started after opening the dusty pages.

Jack's heart thumped loudly in his ears. The yetis and elves lined the upper floor and on the main where they stood, surround him. He breathed deeply to calm himself, but his smile never left his face.

"Vow to watch over the children of the world, to guard them with your life, their hopes, their wishes, their dreams," North continued. "For they are all we have, all that we are, and all that we'll ever be?"

Jack looked at the smiling faces around him. Tooth violet eyes gleamed from threatening tears. Sandy nodded at him with his own smile.

Even though Bunny did not stand among the crowd, the winter spirit felt the Pooka with him. He is the reason Jack stood there, because he wanted to bring fun and spread hope, just like his friend would want.

_Live on in my memory,_ he had said to him, and Jack promised to do so.

Staring up at North, a father figure to him now, he said only two words:

"I will."

**./../\..\.**

**Overall Moral: With every action, there is a consequence to be payed.**

**Moral Detail: From the very beginning, Jack and the guardians had done things that all led to haivng to pay for a price. Jack taking the toothbox from Pitch, Bunny punching Jack, Jack joining Pitch- it all led up to a huge consequence/price that Bunny had to pay with his life. After all, nothing in this world is free, and never has anyone allowed a sin to go unpunished. At some point, it'll catch up to them. (Also with Bunny dead, someone has to do the job of bringing hope which means someone else must bear the work. It's like debt. If you can't pay it, they take what you have or if you die, the burden falls on your kids.) Now, I do realize that I suggested differently in this chapter, but that is only what the characters believe, their truths and thoughts. They only say what they think, but that may not be the real truth.**

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**I'm sorry, my ending is crap... ****  
**

**BAH! I'm sorry if Bunny's death made you mad. From the beginning, I planned for either Jack or him to die, and I figured no one would guess Bunnymund to die. My brain hurts after writing this. The dialogue for all this seriousness is... difficult. I wanted to add comic relief (especially with the Guardian of FUN being the main character), yet it just didn't work. :P**

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**To everyone who's pressed the follow button, thank you. I really appreciate you and making me want to become a better writer. I love you all just because you decided to open up this page and look at my story.****I hope to see you in the future when I write other stories (which may take a while...), so until then (or until you PM me), this is goodbye.**

**... Bye *crying and sending you hugs***

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